


Dead-ish

by strawberrylace



Series: Scary Tales from High Green Sheffield [1]
Category: Arctic Monkeys, British Singers RPF, Indie Music RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Dark Comedy, Drinking, Gen, Horror, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Zombies, and the other monkeys have to take care of him, but then other not so great stuff happens when that blows up in their faces, did i mention that Josh and Miles are scientists in this? because yeah, it takes place on halloween night, matt helders is a zombie, not exactly the zombie apocalypse but could be?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-07 01:24:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4244229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrylace/pseuds/strawberrylace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex, Matt, Jamie, and Nick are your typical twenty-somethings living in Sheffield until one night, one of them gets bitten by a zombie and now they're scrambling to not only care for their newborn zombie but also save them from getting eaten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was a story originally posted on my Tumblr but I have since decided to move it over here!

Twas the night of Halloween and all through the suburb of High Green, children were running around from door to door trick-or-treating. It was a chilly Thursday evening in Sheffield and everywhere you looked, Halloween decorations were hung with care. Skeletons, witches, and black cats galore. You couldn’t go without seeing at least one jack o’ lantern on someone’s front porch.

Matt looked out from his bedroom window at all the little kids running around from house to house with their parents. He thought back on when he was younger and would go trick-or-treating with his friends. They would dress up in as cowboys, superheroes, whatever. Matt remembered one year when he and his friends went off to the richer neighborhood to get bigger candy bars. Once they reached their destination, there was a large rabid dog that halted them from going any further. Frightened, the boys ran as fast as they could all the way back home in hopes that they wouldn’t get bitten.

He and his friends had fun when they went trick-or-treating, but now they were much too old to be doing such childish things. But at the same time, they were too young to not celebrate it either. Too old to trick-or-treat, too young to die, Matt thought to himself. He walked into the bathroom and checked on his face. It was all covered in white paint. He applied red face paint to draw on a nose and a wide smile across his face. As he was painting his face, he heard a knock at the door. 

Matt rushed down the stairs and peered through the peephole of his door. Three guys were standing outside dressed up as clowns. He unhinged the lock on his door and opened it.

“Trick or treat,” said Jamie,honking a bike horn.

“Hey man, you guys want anything before we go?” asked Matt.

“Yeah, you got any candy in there?”

“Mate, if I didn’t have any candy for them kids, what makes you think I have anything for us?”

“I’ll take a pint for the road,” said Alex, making his way into the kitchen.

Matt watched Alex walk past him. He wished he could do his makeup as good as him. Alex looked like one of those sad clown paintings whereas Matt looked as if he was just a poor man’s version of a clown. Even Matt’s clown hat was a sad excuse for a hat. The other guys either wore colorful wigs or, in Alex’s case, colored their hair. 

Nick and Matt sat on the couch while Jamie and Alex were in the kitchen. The telly was playing Bram Stroker’s Dracula. Matt couldn’t keep his eyes off of Nick’s orange wig. It was so…orange.

“Any kids come by?” Nick asked, referring to the trick-or-treaters.

“Nah,” Matt shook his head. “There weren’t as many kids out as usual. Ya know, since the zombies took over…”

“Right…” 

A few months ago, scientists in London experimented with a new genetically engineered virus that was to be the cure for Mad Cow Disease. One of those scientists stole the virus and released it into a field airborne. While they had caught the scientist since then, the damage was irreparable, causing not only many cows to get sick, but affecting many other livestock too. People got sick from eating the livestock, causing them to slowly transform into the zombies that roamed the streets of England now.

It was a widespread panic when the zombies first started to take over. Government officials and scientists all around were scrambling to find a way to control them. Zombie attacks became a regular thing at first, until it left many people scared to leave their homes so the zombies began feeding off themselves. The numbers began to decrease in the size of zombies but the meat supply was now dwindling, with England resorting to become a vegetarian country in order to survive. 

Now, England was barely surviving on what little meat they could eat and there was still no solution for getting rid of the zombies. They weren’t as problematic as they once were in size but people still had to be careful, especially at night.

“Fucking zombies ruin everything,” said Jamie, sitting across from Nick and Matt. “I mean, it’s been nearly five months since the outbreak has occurred and there’s not one cure? They can make zombies come to life but they can’t kill them?”

“I hear they’re getting closer though,” said Alex. “They’ve found something that can cancel out the virus but no word on whether or not it’s effective. Give or take there’s a 35% chance it’ll be the cure-all.”

“That makes me feel so much better now,” said Nick sarcastically. “I like those odds!”

“Oh shut up Nick! I don’t see you coming up with any idea on how to solve our big zombie problem!” Matt snapped.

Nick was taken aback by Matt’s remark. Matt was fiercely protective of Alex. Always had been since they were six. Alex was an easy target at times for being shy but if anyone dared to mess with him, it was Matt who was first to defend him. That’s what best friends were for. Even now, if someone said something to Alex that didn’t sit well with Matt, he was one to say exactly how he felt.

“We ready to go?” asked Jamie.

“Yeah, let’s go,” replied Alex.

The party was being thrown by an acquaintance in an old mansion. Everyone was all dressed in silly costumes, sexy costumes, and everything in between. Jamie and Nick were off chatting up a couple of girls dressed as angels while Matt and Alex looked around the room, drinking beers.

Alex looked back at Matt for a minute. Even though Alex was now considered the “cool” one in the group, he always felt like that dorky kid from primary school. It was Matt who was the cool one. Matt could walk into a room wearing a cutoff denim jacket and people would know this guy meant business. Hell, even his costume made him stand out as the toughest clown out of the group.

“Matt do you think I’m cool?” Alex asked.

“What a load of cock and bull are you talking about?” asked Matt, shocked that he would ask such a thing.

“I’m serious. Do you think I’m cool?”

“Seriously…of course. I mean, you somehow end up with the hottest girls, you look like a proper Teddy Boy, I mean, why the fuck would you ask me that?”

“I dunno. I’m just feeling like maybe I’m not cool and all…”

“Alex, listen to me! You. Are. Cool. You’re my best friend and you know what? We’re gonna keep drinking. We’ll keep drinking until we’re both the coolest fucking clowns there were!”

“Yeah!”

They lost track of how much they had to drink but by the forth beer, things were starting to get hazy. Suddenly, Matt and Alex were the life of the party and Nick and Jamie were along for the ride. The four of them got up on a table and started dancing like Can Can girls, singing to Wannabe. But then things got a little crazy when Jamie and Nick were approached by two burly guys who happened to be the angels’ boyfriends. A fight broke out and soon Matt and Alex were scrambling to get Nick and Jamie out of that scuffle so that they could all hurry back home. 

“I had that guy!” Nick cried as the four of them walked in the streets. “I swear, I had ‘im and I was gonna swing and kick and uh…”

“Nick. Nick. Nick!” shouted Jamie, putting his arm around his shoulder. “I totally feel you. I mean those girls…like they were…Alex, did you know they had boyfriends?”

“I’m the coolest fucking clown in this group,” Alex said aloud.

“Alex you said that like fifteen fucking times man,” said Jamie.

“BUT I’M SO COOL THOUGH!! I’M ALEX FUCKING TURNER AND I’M SO FUCKING COOL!!”

Alex broke away from the group and started to run. The other three ran after him, or at least tried to run since they all wore clown shoes that weren’t equipped for running long distances or even good for regular walking. Alex couldn’t run very far so he led the others to a cemetery where he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the entrance. 

“Al, for fuck’s sake! We can’t run in these bloody shoes!” Nick panted. “Alex?”

Alex wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he was looking straight ahead at the figure that was slowly shuffling in his direction. 

“Alex, what’s wrong?” asked Jamie.

Alex said nothing. Jamie walked over to his side and nudged him on the shoulder. Alex didn’t budge but when Jamie saw the figure that was shuffling over to them, his eyes widened. Nick and Matt came over to see what they were looking at and they jumped.

“ZOMBIE!!” screamed Nick.

The four of them scurried out of the cemetery as fast as they could but then they toppled over one another trying to run in their shoes.

“Fuck these shoes! I don’t care if I have to go in me socks,” cried Nick.

“Dammit, I can’t get this knot undone,” grumbled Matt.

“Guys, let’s go now!” cried Jamie as he looked behind to see the zombie getting closer. He threw his shoes out in the trash can on the corner of the street. “Come on!”

Nick was running right behind him, leaving Alex and Matt fumbling to get their shoes off. When they got them off, they tried to run as fast as they could but the zombie was getting closer and closer. As they ran, Matt tripped over a rock and fell, scrapping his knee.

“Matt, no!” cried Alex.

“Go! I’ll be fine,” said Matt, groaning in pain.

“But the zombie…”

“I’ll be fine. Just…go! I’ll catch up with you.”

Alex hesitated at first but then turned around and started running again. Matt got up and was startled by a cold touch on his shoulder. He jumped and looked behind him to see a woman standing there. She was a zombie all right. Her skin was grey and clammy, her eyes pitch black. She was breathing heavily and there was a finger missing from her left hand.

“Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnn,” groaned the zombie.

“Whoa…listen,” Matt chuckled nervously, stepping back from the zombie. “You’re barking up the wrong tree here. See, I much rather like to live and all…”

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!”

She reached for his head but Matt kicked her right in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. She tried to get back up but he kicked her back down. She grabbed onto his foot and bit into it. Wincing from the bite, he tried to shake her off and smacked her head with his clown shoes. He repeatedly smashed her head with his shoes until it was just chunks left of her head. 

Matt was shaken by what had just happened. He was starting to feel week, sweaty even. He looked down at his hands. They weren’t his natural color. He looked around but there wasn’t a soul in sight. Something about him wasn’t right. He ran off into the night and back to the one place he knew he could go to in a time like this.


	2. Chapter 2

Jamie paced around the living room nervously while Alex and Nick sat on the couch fidgeting. The three of them made it back to Matt’s house safe and sound but there was no sign of Matt. They had been waiting for at least ten minutes for him to come back. Their walk to the party took them exactly eleven minutes to get there and the cemetery was a halfway point from the mansion to Matt’s place. Surely the worst thing couldn’t have happened to him, could it? 

“Where is he?” Jamie asked out loud. “This shouldn’t take anyone this long to get back.”

“Maybe he’s in a ditch?” Nick wondered.

“Don’t say that! This is our friend we’re talking about!” Alex stomped.

“That’s the worst possible scenario you could think of!” agreed Jamie. “There’s a zombie out on the loose and our friend might be killed because of us!”

“This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have left him behind…”

“How could you leave him behind?” asked Nick.

“He told me he was going to catch up to me later! Oh bloody, he’s probably in a ditch because of me.” Alex’s voice was quivering “This is all me fault, isn’t it?”

“No Al, this isn’t your fault..,” said Jamie, giving him a reassuring pat on the back. “No, I’m sure Matt is fine. I bet you any money that Matt is probably off killing the hordes of zombies that roam the streets at night so that all of High Green is safe and sound!”

Nick narrowed his eyes at him and Jamie glared. Seeing Alex sad was bad enough but to tell him that there was a very likely chance that his best friend was dead was something no one wanted to tell Alex. 

“Oh..uh, yeah. Matt’s a-okay, I tell ya,” Nick lied, a little too enthusiastically. 

A knock came at the door. The three of them stood still, wondering who it could be at this hour. Certainly not a trick-or-treater, seeing as how that ended hours ago. Some punk perhaps trying to get a prank in? That was a likely answer at half past one. Another knock followed. Alex and Nick jumped from their seats.

“Ye stop being such babies and just answer the door?” asked Jamie.

They both just looked at Jamie, afraid of what could be behind the door. There was a third knock, only this one was louder.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m coming!” bellowed Jamie as he marched to the door.

“What the fuck do you-” Jamie swung the door open and froze when he saw who the mysterious guest was. He let out a short scream and slammed the door.

Nick and Alex lept up from the couch to see who it was. Jamie just stood there, still in shock over the horrific sight at the door.

“What the bloody hell was that?” asked Nick.

“I thought…I thought..,” Jamie stammered trying to articulate his words. “I thought I saw Matt.”

“You saw Matt? Well why didn’t you let him in?” asked Alex.

“Because…be-because he…”

“Just spit it out already!” complained Nick.

“Because…because it’s not really him! Okay? It’s not really Matt. It’s uh…it’s a zombie!”

“Matt’s a zombie?!” shrieked Alex. “We have to save him!”

Jamie blocked the door from Alex, trying to ignore the knocks that were coming from behind. 

“Are you insane? We can’t let a zombie into this house!” argued Jamie.

“But this is Matt! He’s our friend!”

“Do you know what’s the worst thing that could happen to us?” Nick asked Alex. “He could eat us and I am not an entree last I checked.”

“What?” asked Jamie, confused by Nick’s last statement.

“But we have to save him!” Alex protested.

“How? We don’t know anything about treating and caring for zombies and who knows how serious his bite could be,” said Nick. “He could eat us and is that something you want to risk?”

“Of course I’m willing to take that risk! But I’m also willing to save his life! Isn’t that what we should try to do? Maybe it doesn’t take a scientist or a government official to save our best friend. Maybe it just takes us three to do it.”

Nick and Jamie silently nodded in agreement. These four had been together through so much and were they really ready to throw a 20 year friendship away just because one of them was infected? Absolutely not.

“So we’re going to let him in?” asked Alex.

Jamie and Nick looked at eash other and then back at Alex. Jamie moved out of the way so that Alex could open the door and greet Matt.

“Hey buddy,” said Alex. “You’re alive!”

“Eh.”

That was all Matt could say. It was Matt alright but he certainly wasn’t his human self, nor was he exactly a zombie. Matt’s skin looked almost translucent in the lighting. His eyes, once very bright and blue, were now dull and almost lifeless. The makeup on Matt’s face was smudged, his cheeks pink from rubbing the red and white paint. His puffy blue shirt and red polka dotted vest had dirt on it and his blue and orange stripped pants had a rip in the left knee. His hat was missing a pom-pom and the bottom of his green socks were covered in black from the pavement. 

“Welcome home, Matt!” said Nick cheerily. “Did you get lost?”

“I lost me key,” said Matt. “You have me key, Nick?”

Nick reached in the pocket of his orange vest and pulled out a key attached to a skull and crossbones keychain. Matt had given his house key to Nick before they left for the party in case, in Matt’s words, he was too drunk to open his door. Plus, Matt didn’t have any pockets.

“Matt, are you okay? Do you remember what happened when we were running out of that cemetery?” asked Nick.

“ARE YOU A ZOMBIE YES OR NO?” Jamie shouted.

“Jamie! Clearly Matt’s not a zombie!” snapped Alex. “I mean look at him!”

The three of them looked at Matt. Matt was sniffing his hand and tried to put his fist in his mouth. When he saw everyone looking at him, he took his fist out of his mouth.

“I’m not a zombie…,” said Matt, shuffling over to the couch and falling face down on it.

“See? Told ya!” said Alex.

“Yet..,” said Matt, muffled by the pillows.

The three of the them stiffened as they crept up behind the couch. They watched him in wonder and fear as Matt laid there. He flipped himself over so that Matt was able to look up at his terrified friends.

“What do you mean you’re not a zombie yet?” asked Jamie. 

“Well…I got bit..,” started Matt.

“YOU GOT BIT?” cried Alex “I knew I shouldn’t have left you there!”

“I got bit…but the zombie is dead. I smashed her head with my shoes. My clown shoes. I mean, I feel a bit weird now but like…I don’t wanna eat you or anything…”

“Where’s the bite?” asked Nick.

“On me foot.” 

Matt raised his foot up and pulled his off his sock to show them where the zombie bit him. It was right under the ankle. It looked like regular human teeth marks but it was a deep bite. No blood surprisingly. The heel of the foot was changing colors from purple to yellow to grey. It was a nasty sight and smell.

“Oh god, your foot reeks of zombie!” said Nick, plugging his nose.

“His feet have always smelled bad, that’s not the zombie,” said Jamie, rolling his eyes.

“So what are you then if you’re not a full-on zombie?” asked Alex, half praying that the worst hasn’t come yet.

“I dunno…I guess I’m like…” Matt scratched his head trying to find the right word. “Dead-ish? Is that a word? Like I’m not really dead but not quite alive either.”

Alex looked at Jamie and Nick. They weren’t sure what to think of this. They had questions like, how long was Matt going to be this way? Dead-ish? Could they trust a partial zombie not to eat them? Is there a way they could cure him?

“He’s not full-on zombie at least,” said Nick.

“But is it safe to keep him here? Are we safe being around him?” asked Jamie. “We can’t just harbor a zombie in here hoping he won’t eat us.”

“Guys, we have to keep him here,” said Alex. “Matt would never eat us. Never in a million years would he do that. We can find a way to take care of him!”

“I’m right here ya know,” said Matt. 

“Sorry. Look Matt, we can’t let you turn into a full-on zombie. We’re gonna find a cure for this!”

“How? We’re not scientists!” exclaimed Jamie.

“Well, we work with what we know,” said Nick.

“And what is that?” asked Alex.

“Zombie movies?” asked Matt.

The three looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

“Sure, movies, the telly, internet, anything,” said Nick.

“Without the government and scientists?” asked Jamie.

“We don’t need those fuckers. We know Matt better than anyone else!”

Matt smiled. He wasn’t feeling so bad about where his night took him because his friends were going to help him. They weren’t going to leave him just because he got bit by a zombie. Yeah, this was going to be all good.

“I need sleep,” mumbled Matt.

“Yeah, sleep is good. We should all get some sleep,” Jamie agreed.

“If Matt’s not using his bed, I call his room!” shouted Nick as he ran up the stairs.

“I call other room!” Jamie followed.

Alex went into the other room to bring Matt a blanket. He laid it over him and Matt looked up.

“Are you gonna kill me?” Matt asked.

Alex stopped and looked at Matt. Matt’s eyes were still dark blue and his skin was looking a lot more pale. Alex looked down at Matt’s foot and noticed the color was spreading to the tips of his toes. It was almost all purple now. Who knew how fast this was going to spread and the bite didn’t look that serious either. Why would Matt dare ask Alex such a thing? They’ve been best friends for 20-something years. Alex could never kill his best friend if he turned into a zombie. He just didn’t have it in him.

“No mate,” Alex shook his head. “No.”

Alex went to grab a sleeping bag and when he came back, Matt was sound asleep. Alex laid down his bag on the floor got himself comfortable. He had a hard time trying to fall sleep. All he could think about was whether or not Matt was going to go through some drastic change overnight. No, he thought, Matt wouldn’t do that. Matt was our friend and he would never do anything, no matter how much of a zombie he was. Alex pushed back any other thoughts of Matt becoming a zombie and fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Alex’s eyes fluttered as the morning light shone through the blinds. He wiggled around in his sleeping bag before he stretched himself out. Alex slept in his costume that night and when he looked at the pillow, he noticed some of the makeup was smudged on there. He took the pillow case off the pillow and went to put it in the wash. In the laundry room, there was already some dirty clothes inside. Perhaps Matt had meant to do laundry earlier, Alex thought. He hoped Matt wouldn’t mind.

Some would call it a quirk but for Alex, he just wanted to be clean. Perhaps that was why his friends’ parents always liked him so much. Always offering to clean and help with chores, even as a young boy. Once, when he was ten, he was playing at Jamie’s house and noticed his mum needed help with the groceries. Alex rushed over to help her while Jamie watched. He remembered Jamie’s mum asking why he couldn’t be more like that nice Turner boy, always so helpful. It wasn’t as if he was trying to make his friends look bad. He just wanted to be polite and well-liked.

Alex went to the bathroom and washed the makeup off his face. When he dried his face off, he noticed his hair was still green. It didn’t look ridiculous on him, he thought to himself and wondered if perhaps he could pull it off. Going a day without washing his hair wouldn’t be the end of the world he thought to himself. But he did need to change out of that costume. Halloween was over but Alex didn’t have a change of clothes on him. He could always run back to his house real quick when the others got up.

Coming out of the bathroom, Jamie was waiting outside the door. Alex didn’t hear him come down the stairs.

“Morning,” greeted Jamie.

“Morning,” said Alex. “You sleep well?”

“Eh, it was alright. How’s our not human, not zombie doing?”

“He’s still asleep. Actually, I didn’t check on ‘im when I woke up so I’m assuming he’s still asleep and not dead.”

Jamie turned his head when he heard the washing machine make a noise. He turned back to Alex and raised his eyebrow.

“Are you doing laundry?” asked Jamie.

“Uh..well not really but…I got makeup on the pillow last night so i figured why not…” Alex tried to play it off coolly but came off nervous and skittish.

“Uh huh. You’re strange sometimes, Turner.”

“Hey, look who’s still alive!” greeted Nick, coming down the stairs.

“We’re still here,” said Alex. 

“Can you believe it? So Matt didn’t try to eat you last night?”

“Nope, I slept soundly and comfortably.”

“So he’s still alive? Well, as alive as he can be.”

“I dunno. I didn’t check on him when I got up.”

“That’s something we should do,” suggested Jamie. 

The three of them went into the living room and looked down at Matt. He was asleep alright but when they looked at his foot, the color of it was now completely grey. Jamie, Alex and Nick exchanged worried glances at one another. One of the biggest tell-all signs of a zombies is their grey complexion all over their body. Because this was a recent bite, it wouldn’t be before long until the grey spreads throughout the rest of the body.

Jamie pulled the blanket off of Matt very carefully to check if it had spread far but was startled when Matt began to move around on the couch. Matt extended one arm from the blanket, which appeared to be pale like it was last night. There was a sigh of relief from Alex and Nick. It was good to know that Matt hadn’t completely transformed overnight. Matt reached out his other arm and pulled himself up so that he was sitting upright on the couch. He yawned and looked over at his friends who were watching him sleep.

“You guys..,” yawned Matt. “What’s this?”

“Oh my god, you’re still alive!” Alex said excitedly.

“What? Yeah, I’m alive and-” Matt stopped and examined his foot. “Hey, me foot’s gone grey… Guys…”

He took the blanket off and rolled up the pant leg to reveal more grey that went up past his ankle. Nick gasped at the sight while Jamie and Alex cursed under their breaths.

“Guys, it’s spreading!” Matt panicked. “It’s spread. Oh shite, how the fuck could it have spread so fast?”

“Mate, calm down,” Nick reassured. “It’s just a-”

“Just a what? A bite? Nick, this isn’t some animal that bit me. It’s a fucking zombie we’re talking about! How the fuck could this have already spread when the bloody thing didn’t even bite me that hard?”

“Dude, you need to calm down. We’re gonna figure this out, see if we can fix this ourselves. Just like we talked about last night,” said Alex.

“Wait, you were being serious about that?” asked Nick. “Oh damn, how much did I drink last night?”

“Okay, well if this is gonna be our plan, we need to gather up everything we know about zombies,” said Jamie.

“Hey, doesn’t it bother anyone else that we’re still dressed up as clowns?” asked Matt. 

Matt had a point. It wasn’t like they were going out anywhere today but just in case someone had to go out, it would be ridiculous for them to run around town still in their clown costumes.

“Yeah, good point. Matt are you gonna be okay on your own while we run back home and change real quick?” asked Nick.

“You make it sound like I’m going to do something drastic while you’re all gone,” said Matt, unamused.

“We won’t be gone long, we promise! Just don’t try to eat anyone or go outside,” said Alex. 

“I’m not daft! I know how zombies behave and I’m only dead-ish!” cried Matt, getting frustrated with his friends treating him like a baby. 

“Promise?”

Matt sighed. “Fine.”

The three of them were gone for at least twenty minutes. They all lived so close to one another. In order for them to save Matt, the three of them decided they should find whatever zombie media they had lying around in their house and hopefully it would lead them to some answers.Everyone brought with them their own collection of zombie-related movies and television shows, from the Living Dead movies to Shaun of the Dead. Along with that, Jamie brought with his laptop, Nick had the Walking Dead comics and Alex brought along a big book on zombie culture. When they returned, Matt was still on the couch in the same position they left him. 

“Hey Matt, how you holding up?” asked Alex.

“Food,” Matt replied.

“Food?” asked Jamie.

“Food. Food now,” Matt repeated.

“Sure man, we’ll get you food. What do you want?” asked Nick.

“Gimme food. Any food,” groaned Matt.

The three of them walked into the kitchen to see what was in the refrigerator. Matt had plenty of vegetables in his fridge, much like every other Brit now that the meat supply was scarce. How were they going to keep a partial zombie alive by just feeding him greens?

“You guys figure out lunch while I get the laundry out of the washer,” Alex called over as he left the room.

Nick and Jamie grabbed whatever looked good from the fridge and laid it out on the table. What they found to work with was tofu, kale, carrots, onions, scallions, and some leftover angel hair pasta.

“This is rubbish,” muttered Nick, shaking his head. “How are we supposed to keep our friend alive with this? I bet this will have the opposite effect on ‘im and make ‘im wanna eat us more!”

“Will you calm down? Matt’s not gonna eat us! We’ll just make him fried tofu with noddles and veggies. He has to eat it, right?” Jamie asked. 

“Unless you tell ‘im that’s brain bits in his stir-fry, no way in hell he’s gonna want to eat it.”

“It’s what we’ve got to work with. Plus, if we run out of food, we can always go to the store and get more later. Maybe we’d be able to find some meat substitutes for him to eat.”

“Maybe.” 

“Guys, have you seen Matt?” Alex asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Isn’t he still on the couch?” asked Jamie.

“Well, I went over there to ask him about the pillow case I used last night but he wasn’t there.”

“Did you check his bedroom?” asked Nick.

“I did. Wasn’t there.”

“The bathroom?”

“Not there either.”

“You checked every other room in this house?”

“Well, not the kitchen. Is he in here?”

Jamie and Nick froze. The three of them stopped everything that they were doing and ran towards the front door. Nick burst it open and nearly tripped down the steps. Jamie and Alex followed and the three scanned the front yard.

“Matt? Matt?” Alex called out, running to the backyard.

“He couldn’t have gone far,” said Nick, going to the garage.

A pedestrian was walking his dog and gave Nick and his friends a funny look. Nick waved politely but he didn’t get a response. That was okay, he thought. At least his best friend wasn’t a partial zombie who may or may not be on the loose.

“GUYS GET OVER HERE!” Alex shouted.

Jamie bolted over to the backyard to see what Alex found. When he came over, Alex had this horrified look on his face. Jamie looked at his face, afraid to ask what was wrong. Nick came up from behind and before he could ask what was going on, Alex just pointed at his discovery. Jamie and Nick gasped at what they found.

There was Matt in the corner of his garden gnawing and pulling apart a white rabbit. He wasn’t really eating the rabbit, it could be best described as devouring the poor creature. Matt looked up at his friends’ horrified expressions, face covered in blood and chewing on god knows what part of the rabbit it was.

“What?” asked Matt, completely oblivious to what was going on. “I was hungry.”


	4. Chapter 4

When Nick was seven, he begged his parents to get him a pet. Any pet would’ve sufficed. For his birthday, he received a white rabbit named Henry. Nick loved Henry and took very good care of his little white rabbit. One day Nick brought Henry’s cage out in the yard. When Nick wasn’t looking, Henry managed to get out of his cage and run off. Nick searched for Henry high and low but was nowhere to be found.

He put up lost and found signs all over his neighborhood but no luck. Two weeks later, his parents told him that it was a lost and that Henry was probably off with a new bunny family. Now, every time Nick saw a white rabbit, he always wondered whether it was Henry but then would think otherwise. 

Nick almost had a freak out when he found Matt mauling that rabbit. He was about to beat the shite out of him until he saw that it was not a white rabbit, but a brown rabbit. The thought of Matt eating Henry made Nick sick to his stomach. Actually the thought of Matt becoming a zombie made Nick even more sick.

Matt’s diet was starting to change. He refused to eat a vegetarian diet, complaining that it wasn’t what he wanted to eat. Matt was craving something else. Nick would go out and hunt for whatever wildlife was out there, from raccoons to squirrels. Basically, whatever was in the backyard. Nick would set up a trap for the animal and just serve it to Matt raw, just the way he wanted.

For the next three days, Matt was becoming more and more zombie-like. His skin was almost completely grey, his zombie-bitten foot was missing a toe, and he was starting to smell. It was a mixture of body odor and decay. The odor was becoming unbearable for the guys to live with. Spraying the entire house with Febreeze only helped the problem a little. 

“I don’t think we should keep feeding him animals in the backyard,” said Nick, checking up on a sleeping Matt on the couch. “I think it might be making him worse.”

“It’s the only thing we can give him,” said Jamie. “What else are we going to feed him? Human flesh?”

“But giving Matt raccoons to eat can’t be helping him either. These animals could be carrying diseases! Rabbies or worse, they could be carrying the virus!”

“Did the scientists ever test on those animals though?” asked Alex, reading one of the zombie comics. “I mean, they tested on all the livestock so wouldn’t it make sense for the scientists to do tests on every single animal in England?”

“How do we even know they actually performed tests on every single livestock in England? For all we know, they probably only did a few farms,” said Nick.

Jamie and Nick were watching George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. They were halfway into the movie and so far, there was no new information they hadn’t known about zombies. 

“What I don’t get about this movie is why they all retreat to a mall? Don’t they know that zombies like big open areas and that a mall is just one big open target for these people?” Jamie asked out loud. 

“Actually, Romero was inspired by a visit to a mall with his friend who joked that anyone could survive in a mall under emergency circumstances,” Alex pointed out, still reading his comic.

“Okay, but why are they zombies? What’s the cause of all this?” asked Jamie.

“No one knows. It’s all a mystery,” said Nick, his eyes widening at Jamie and making ghost noises.

Jamie and Nick laughed while Alex frowned at them. He looked over at Matt who was sleeping rather soundly. When Matt wasn’t eating, all he did was sleep. On average, Matt was sleeping about 14 hours per day. He’d only be up for food but other than that, he wasn’t up for much else, not even talking.

“Knock it off,” said Alex, hitting Nick with his comic. “It’s been four days since Matt’s been bit and we’re nowhere near saving him. He’s only getting worse. What have we gathered so far?” 

“I’m glad you asked,” Nick smiled. “Follow me into the kitchen.”

The three of them gathered round at the kitchen table with their notebooks and laptop in hand.

“Since we’re all here and I’m sure once Matt gets up, it’ll be nice for him to see some fellow zombies in this movie…” 

“Not funny Nick,” mumbled Alex. 

“Right, sorry. After careful review of The Cabin in the Woods, because why the hell not, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead, and Shaun of the Dead, I have my notes.”

Nick opened up his spiral notebook and cleared his throat.

“First and foremost, we probably shouldn’t be reading any books that might involve with waking up the dead because that would make our situation a thousand times worse.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” asked Jamie rolling his eyes.

“Hey that is a bloody moral of the story from The Cabin in the Woods! You don’t pick up shite like that! Messing around with spirits is never a good idea!”

“Just keep going,” Alex sighed.

“Two, if we leave the problem alone, it will all get better eventually!”

“And when is that?” asked Jamie.

“I dunno. It took months for the zombie problems to die away in the other movies.”

“Fuck…”

“But Matt isn’t a threat to society,” said Alex. “So Nick makes a good observation there. Waiting. It may not be the most ideal but…it’s something right?”

Jamie shrugged.

“Anything else you want to add Nick?” asked Alex. 

Nick shook his head.

“Well, I’ve got a few things. I really think you’re gonna like it!” said Jamie excitedly.

“Let’s hear it,” said Alex.

“Blood transfusion.”

“What?” Alex and Nick said in unison. 

“Yeah, remember in I Am Legend, Will Smith’s character was trying to find a cure and so he ran a test on one of the female zombies to see if his blood was able to cure her?”

Alex and Nick nodded.

“Okay, so maybe that’s all Matt really needs. What he needs is clean and healthy blood in order to cure him!”

“One major problem: We can’t cure Matt with a blood transfusion ourselves. We’re not scientists!” cried Nick. “And what about Matt’s blood type? Do we know what Matt’s blood type is?”

“So what you’re saying is we’re hopeless,” grumbled Jamie. “I see.”

“We’re not hopeless! I know someone who can help us with the blood transfusion!” exclaimed Alex.

“Who?” asked Jamie and Nick.

“Miles.”

“Kane? He’s a scientist?” asked Jamie.

“Yeah, I dunno what exactly he does per say but I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help us out!” 

“Great, so where does he live?” asked Nick.

“Well…you see, that’s the problem..,” said Alex trailing off.

“How far away is he?” asked Jamie.

“He may or may not be in the States…actually he is Stateside. I think it was West? Yeah, he’s definitely West, specifically California.”

“CALIFORNIA?? HOW THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TRAVEL TO CALIFORNIA WHEN WE’VE GOT A ZOMBIE WITH US??” screamed Nick. “WHAT IF HE TRIES TO EAT THE SECURITY?? CUSTOMS WILL ARREST US FOR SURE!!“ 

“Nick! Calm down!” Jamie shushed.

“Well it would be more of a burden for him to travel up here seeing as how this whole place is in shambles and what other option do we have?” shouted Alex.

Nick and Jamie gave each other a grim look.

“No…no. Not that. Anything but that!” cried Alex.

“Alex, traveling with Matt in the condition he’s in would be dangerous. Either he comes here or..,” Jamie couldn’t even say the words. He covered his mouth and looked away.

“Alex..,“ Nick reached out to comfort his distressed friend but Alex pulled away.

“Why would you guys even consider that? Do you not care about our best friend? Do you guys just want the quick way out of this whole shite situation?”

Alex wiped his face and rubbed his nose. Normally, he’d be self-conscious of crying in front of anyone but now he didn’t care. His best friend was not well and thought of losing him, letting him die made his heart crumble.

“Matt is my best friend. He’s my better half. Hell, I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it weren’t for him in my life! So for you guys to take that all away, well…you’re fucking shit!”

Alex stormed up the stairs and slammed the door to Matt’s room. Nick and Jamie were still in shock, sitting there in the kitchen. An hour went by. Jamie tried to coax Alex out of the room but there was no answer. He joined Nick and a sleeping Matt downstairs to watch The Cabin in the Woods. Jamie took a whiff of the room and gagged.

“I literally just febreezed the room,” said Nick.

“Bullocks, he fucking smells like my old Aunt Agnes,” said Jamie, covering his nose with his shirt.

Jamie pat Matt’s head and looked down at his face. Matt’s perfectly oval-shaped head could been seen as one of two ways. Matt could look like this angelic young lad who probably would help an old lady cross the street or he’d be that tough guy in the biker gang who’d beat the daylights out of you if you looked him the wrong way. For Jamie, he saw the latter of the two, but this was a man who was grey and cold. He might eat that old lady before he’d help her cross the street now.

“If you’re gonna make out with him, I can leave the room,” Nick joked.

“Will you fuck off?” Jamie grumbled, throwing a pillow at Nick’s face.

“I was only kidding!”

“Well, it’s not funny. This is a serious issue. We find a way to save our best friend but we can’t do it on account of Matt being a full-blown zombie who may or may not try to eat someone.”

“Are we sure it’s full blown?“

Jamie glared at him.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to make light of all this because god knows we can’t lose Matt. I don’t think I’d have it in me to kill him if worse came to worse,” Nick sighed.

“I know how you feel. I just wished that Alex could see it,” said Jamie, his eyes glancing up at the stairs.

“You know we probably could get that blood transfusion for Matt, now that I think about it.”

Jamie slowly turned his head. “How?”

“You know my buddy Josh? He’s a hematologist in London. We could see if he can treat Matt,” said Nick nonchalantly.

Jamie blinked. “Nick, why the bloody hell didn’t you think of this sooner?”

“Because it’s a risk! Who knows if this is actually going to work or not!” explained Nick.

Jamie shook his head. “Do you think he’d be willing to do this for us?”

“Absolutely. He’s my good buddy, why wouldn’t he?” asked Nick, smiling.

“Because last time we saw him, we nearly got thrown out of a bar because some bloke looked at him the wrong way…”

Oh yeah, I forgot about that…”

“Nevermind, do you really think he’d help us though? Like tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’d trust him with Matt.”

When Nick left the room, it was Jamie left alone with a sleeping Matt. Jamie was silently praying that this would all go well and that Matt would be back to normal. He thought about going back upstairs to see how Alex was doing but thought it was best to leave him be until Nick came back with some news. Jamie noticed Matt’s decaying foot was hanging out from the blanket. Grossed out, he pushed the foot back on the couch and tucked it into the blanket. He gave his foot a pat and waited for Nick to finish his call.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so this will be the last chapter for a while since I'll be on vacation all week but I should have another one up when I get back!

The next morning Jamie and Nick were packing up the car for their trip to London. Much to their luck, not only was Josh willing to help but Miles was also in town as well, which made Alex very happy when they told him the news last night. Josh and Miles were at St. George’s University of London assisting students with their pediatric hematology fellowships. Nick was worried they would be too much of a bother for them to assist but Josh insisted that they come up.

“And he said it was no trouble?” asked Jamie.

“That’s what he said,” replied Nick. “I just didn’t want us to be in the way especially if we’ve got med students needing their help with more important things.”

“Right. Have you seen Alex? We need to leave like right now if we want to get up there early.”

“He said he was coming. I dunno what’s taking ‘im so long.”

Jamie rolled his eyes and went back in the house. Nick followed him behind after closing the trunk.

“Al? Hey, where are-”

Jamie turned and jumped up when he was saw what was on the couch. Nick saw it and screamed, cowering behind Jamie.

Matt was in awful shape. Barely a week had passed and Matt’s shift into becoming more zombie like was coming into full circle. Matt’s skin was completely grey. His eyes were almost pitch black and drool was coming out of his mouth. The smell of him was more unbearable than the day before. No amount of Febreeze could mask that. The zombie bitten foot was now missing two toes which were somewhere on the floor.

“Uh…hey buddy..,” Jamie’s voice faltered, standing very still. “Do y-you wanna go for a ride?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnggggggggggggguuuuuuhhhhh,” answered Matt.

“What did he say?” whispered Nick, poking his head out from behind Jamie.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNGGGGGGGUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

Matt threw a dirty plate at Jamie and Nick but they were able to duck in time before it could hit either of them. The plate hit the wall and shattered on the floor. Meanwhile, Matt had rolled himself off the couch for the first time in two days and hit his head on the ground. It didn’t seem to hurt him but he didn’t make any movement afterward for a while.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, coming down from the stairs.

Jamie and Nick jumped. Alex looked over at Matt on the floor and gasped.

“Matt! Matt! You alright?” Alex asked, quickly approaching his zombie friend.

“Al! Don’t do it!” Nick stopped him from going any further. “You don’t know how contagious he really is.”

“What are you guys talking about? Matt would never eat us in a million years! He gave us his word!”

 

“I think in his zombie brain, a million years has timed out for him.”

Matt’s body just lay there. The only one brave enough to go approach him was Alex. He pressed his face against the floor to check if Matt was still conscious. Matt’s breath, which smelled like expired tuna casserole, was normal. Alex grabbed Matt by the arms and dragged him off the floor. Another toe fell off as Alex dragged Matt over to Jamie and Nick. 

“Okay, help me get him in the car,” said Alex.

“Are you insane? I’m not riding shot gun with him,’ said Jamie.

“Well then where is he supposed to go then? In the trunk? Tied up to the top of the car like a dead elk?”

“Is there any law against having a zombie tied to the top of your car?” asked Nick.

“I’m pretty sure it’s no worse than keeping your zombie in the trunk,” said Jamie.

“Come on guys, there is no way I am gonna carry him all by myself into this car. You said that Josh and Miles were willing to help and we’re gonna travel with him whether you like it or not!”

After arguing over who would sit with Matt in the back seat for ten minutes, the lads decided that the only way to solve this dilemma was by wrapping Matt up like a mummy and strapping him on to the top of the car.

“No one will notice, right?” Nick asked nervously.

The drive was long and peaceful. Well, for some it was peaceful. Alex kept fidgeting in the front seat while Jamie drove. Nick was dozed off in the back seat. Jamie tried to keep his eyes on the road but he couldn’t help but notice Alex biting his fingernails and trying to look up from his car window.

“Al, you need to relax,” said Jamie reassuringly. “Matt’s gonna be fine up there. He probably won’t even wake up again for another few hours.”

“I’m trying to!” snapped Alex. He took a deep breath and composed himself. “I can’t help it. I mean, we’ve been doing everything we can to take care of him right? He’s been eating his food and sleeping. Surely once this blood transfusion is a success, all will be back to normal, correct?”

Jamie nodded and smiled. “See? There’s a positive side to this! We just have to look on the bright side of life and it’ll all be fine!”

There was a thud on top of the car. Nick stirred and slowly opened his eyes. He looked out the window.

“Guys, are we almost there yet?” asked Nick.

“Just about 20 more minutes or so,” answered Alex.

There was another thud on the car.

“Guys, did you hear that?”

Jamie pulled the car over to the side of the road. The three of them got out of the car to check up on the hood. The ropes were untied and the blankets and Matt were gone.

“Fuck!” cried Jamie. “Where did he go?”

“I told you!” exclaimed Alex. “I told you tying him up was a bad idea! But you didn’t listen to me, did you?”

“Alex, this isn’t the time or place! We’ve lost Matt somewhere along the road and we need to-”

“ZOMBIE!!”

Alex and Jamie turned around to see Nick screaming and pointing at a slow moving Matt, a blanket covering his body as if he were a ghost, shuffling his way towards his friends. Nick ran off into the car while Alex latched onto Jamie, holding onto him for dear life. They looked at each other, scared and panicked, as Matt shuffled closer and closer to the two.

From out of the car, a screaming Nick ran up to Matt and hit him in the head with a baseball bat. There, Matt was knocked out, blanket over him, and laying on the cold hard ground. Jamie and Alex walked over to Nick and looked down at Matt. Jamie lifted the blanket up. Matt had a big bruise on his forehead and didn’t show any signs of getting back up. Jamie put the blanket back over him.

Without arguing, the three lifted Matt up and threw him in the trunk. The rest of the ride to London went off without a hitch. When they arrived at St. George’s, they opened the trunk to see how Matt was doing. Still knocked out. With Nick on look out, Jamie and Alex pulled Matt out from the trunk and carried him out like a rug. With Nick in front, the three walked as fast as they could into St. George’s.

Once they were in, they ran into an elevator and pressed the button to close repeatedly until it slowly closed. Nick pressed a button and waited for it to start moving up.

“Did he say which floor he was on?” asked Jamie.

“Yeah, Josh said he and Miles would be on the fifth floor. Room 505, I believe,” said Nick.

Alex, who was holding onto Matt’s arms, could see Matt breathing through the blanket. As creepy as it was, it gave Alex a sense of reassurance that Matt had some sort of human features in him. Actually, the whole time that Matt was making his transformation into a zombie, Alex had been in such denial. Last night was what really made him start to reevaluate his thinking. What if this transfusion didn’t work out? What if Matt started to attack people. This morning he didn’t want to believe Mat could do something but the car ride there made him think twice.

The elevator reached the fifth floor. When the door opened, the halls were white and brightly lit. There was no one in sight, a plus for everyone. The lads walked slowly with Matt still out like a lamp. They walked down the hall until they reached a door with the number ‘505′. Nick knocked on the door once.

“Josh? Hey, it’s us.”

Nothing. Nick knocked on the door again.

“Hey, it’s Nick. You in there?”

Still nothing. Instead of knocking, Nick opened the door and let himself and the others in. Closing the door behind them, they took a look around the lab. Everything in the lab looked so clean and sterile. Over on the side were two scientists looking through their microscopes and taking notes. One of them had short black hair while the other had red hair. The scientist with red hair looked up from his microscope and got up from his seat.

“Nick, good to see you,” Josh smiled. “I see you guys brought…Matt.”

Josh’s smile faded when he saw that Jamie and Alex were carrying in Matt like he was a corpse. The scientist with black hair came over to Josh’s side and widened his eyes. Alex smiled wide when he saw Miles come and Miles was just as happy to see him and then he saw what was in his and Jamie’s hands.

“My god,” gasped Miles. “Did you actually bring him into the hospital like that, Alex?”

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea,” said Alex defensively. “I was hoping Matt would actually be able to move himself around but obviously that didn’t happen.”

“Where can we put him?” asked Jamie.

“Just drop him over there,” said Josh, pointing to an empty lab table.

“Okay!” Jamie and Alex dropped Matt where they were instructed. Alex tried to carefully put Matt’s head down on the table while Jamie just let his legs hit the table hard.

“He didn’t mean literally drop him. You could’ve been more careful,” said Miles. 

“Trust me on this, Nothing could break this guy. I hit him with a bat this morning and he’s still breathing,” said Nick rather proudly. 

Alex and Miles rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

“So what are we dealing with here?” asked Josh.

“A zombie. A full-blown zombie,” said Jamie.

Josh blinked. “Yeah, I figured. But has he eaten anyone yet? How is it that he’s still alive?”

“Well, we have been feeding him, ya know? I mean, he’s only been really acting like a zombie since this morning,” said Nick.

“We’ve been giving him rabbits and raccoons to eat, if that’s what you really want to know,” Alex chimed in.

“You’ve been feeding him animals? What the bloody hell is wrong with you?” cried Miles.

“It’s the only thing he eats!” Jamie protested. “And it’s not like we haven’t tried to give him vegetables because we have! But he went after this rabbit the day after he was bitten and now all he’ll eat is the wildlife in his backyard.”

“Do you suppose that’s what’s making him evolve more quickly?” Alex asked Josh.

“It can’t be,” replied Josh. “I mean it usually takes at least a week for the zombie’s blood to enter the system. How long has it been since Matt was bitten?”

“It’s been since Halloween, so I wanna say five days maybe?” said Alex, second guessing himself.

“Five days? Oh shite, oh shite,” Miles muttered to himself.

“What, is it bad?” asked Jamie.

“This is bad. This is really bad. We have to figure out something now, like right now.” 

And why is it really bad again?” asked Alex.

Miles’ face was as white as a ghost. Completely ignoring the question, he said, “Guys, unwrap the blanket so we can take a look at him.”

Alex and Nick unwrapped the blanket. Matt’s bruise on his forehead had a small bump that was turning yellow and purple, a stark contrast from his grey complexion all over his body.

“Guys,” said Josh, turning to Nick, Jamie, and Alex. “Can one of you explain to me as to why Matt is wearing a clown costume?”

“Uh…”

No one had bothered to give Matt some new clothes to wear. Actually, every time they tried to get Matt to change or go wash up, he would throw a fit about it and so they just let Matt wear the costume all day every day.

“Yeah, we…” Nick started.

“We don’t know why,” Alex finished. “I mean, he likes it so…yeah.”

Miles raised his eyebrows.

“Where did he get bit?” asked Josh.

“Right over here,” said Nick, pointing at the zombie bitten foot. 

Josh looked at it very carefully, “Where are his toes?”

“They fell off at home.” 

“And you didn’t think to bring them with you?”

“Hey, we’ve never had to take care of a zombie before! All we had was our gut instincts and a lot of zombie movies to base our knowledge off of them!”

“Oh my god.”

“So is there anything you guys can do?” asked Jamie.

“Of course we can. We’ll get some blood samples from the zombie, input some data and hopefully get you some results within hours,” replied Miles.

“You can do that for us?” asked Alex, wide eyed. “Oh thank you! Thank you!”

Alex hugged both Josh and Miles very tight for a minute. At first they were quite flattered by Alex’s gratitude but now Josh was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable by Alex’s affection.

“Uh…Al? Are you done?” asked Miles, trying to be polite.

“What? Oh!” Alex quickly pulled away, his cheeks turning beet red. “Sorry about that,” he muttered, walking away towards Nick and Jamie, feeling really embarrassed.

Alex and Jamie quickly left the room as Miles turned to gather some supplies. Josh and Nick stepped away from the table so they could talk in private.

“Hey, you guys really think that you could, ya know, turn him back to normal and stuff?”

Josh sighed. “To be honest, I don’t know. I’m not a wizard, Nick. If no one else has been able to solve this zombie crisis, what makes you think that Miles and I can be the ones to do it?”

“Because I don’t think anyone has actually tried to do some tests on a human zombie before, ya know? Every time you hear about them doing tests, it’s always on animals and stuff. Come on, Josh. We’re really counting on you two.”

“We’ll do what we can. Can’t promise you any miracles of some sort.”

Nick gave him a pat on the back and smiled. “Thanks. It’s more than we could ask for. I mean it.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey thanks for the wait on this chapter! I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for reading it!

Alex, Jamie, and Nick waited outside St. George, bumming cigarettes off each other. The sky was dark purple and the sun was starting to set. It was getting chilly out and Nick was regretting not bringing his winter coat with him. He tugged more on his hoodie, hoping that would keep him warm. Jamie and Alex sat quietly, passing the cigarette back and forth to each other.

“How much longer do you think?” asked Alex, exhaling his cigarette. “Me cig’s gonna blow out I think.” 

“Josh was gonna text me when they were done with the prognosis,” said Nick. “It’s been maybe a couple of hours or so.” 

Alex took one last puff and flicked the cigarette onto the street. Jamie grumbled something about a last cigarette but no one was paying attention. 

“Do you think we should stay out here for the night?” asked Alex. “I mean, is it a good idea to have to travel with Matt back and forth with the way that he is?” 

“I dunno, you know anyone who would like to have a zombie in their home?” asked Jamie, with bite. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine traveling back with Matt. As long as he stays asleep the whole ride home, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Nick reassured. 

Nick’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked down and had a text from Josh. He furrowed his brow, reading into the context of the message. 

“Guys, we better head up there now,” said Nick. “Josh and Miles found something…” 

“Is it bad?” asked Jamie, eyes widening. 

“It’s…something. We better get up there fast.” 

The three of them hurried up the building to room 505, with Nick rushing ahead of Alex and Jamie. They burst through the door to find Josh and Miles, sitting at the lab table with worried expressions. This threw Nick in for a loop. Matt was nowhere to be found in the room. When Alex and Jamie saw this, they ran around the room looking for Matt. 

“We got your text. Where’s Matt?” Nick asked frantically. 

Josh looked over at Nick, his eyes looking tired. 

“Josh, what happened?” Nick asked, walking closer to Miles and Josh. 

“Mate, we’ve got some good news and some bad news,” Miles sighed. 

Alex and Jamie stopped looking and walked over to Nick, standing beside him. 

“The good news is we were able to get a sample of Matt’s blood and run some tests. He woke up once you guys left and was in a state of shock. Tried to attack us but luckily my partner here was able to give him an ol’ swift kick in the arse!” Miles looked over at Josh and smiled. Josh shrugged, trying to downplay his act of bravery. “Anyway, what we found in his blood was pretty surprising. You see, zombie blood and human blood have very different make ups. The blood cells in zombie blood are much smaller than in human blood. I could go on and on about the other differences but I’m sure you’d be quite bored with that...” 

“What do you mean to tell us?” asked Alex, trying to process all of the information.   
“  
Matt’s bloodwork…he’s got a combination of human AND zombie blood. But the zombie blood is making an attack on the human blood cells. I know this sounds crazy and all but after looking at the samples and seeing the cells move around, we noticed that the larger cells are engulfing the smaller ones. Rapidly multiplying and whatnot and well…” 

“When a person is bitten by a zombie,” Josh interrupted. “It’s normally an immediate transformation. The virus spreads. Like within a day, that person’s behavior drastically changes overnight. We were really surprised when you told us that Matt was bitten a few days ago and had been slowly progressing into his transformation.” 

“So feeding him rabbits helped?” asked Jamie. 

“Yes and no,” replied Miles. 

“While this slowed down Matt’s zombie transformation by a lot, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was stunted,” explained Josh. “I mean, he was still infected by the virus and all. The human blood cells are fighting with the zombie blood cells but they’re losing. Inevitably, he will become a full-fledged zombie.” 

The three guys looked down. Alex could feel his stomach drop. Jamie and Nick’s faces were pale. Their worst fears were realized. After the efforts they put in to try to save Matt, he would still become a zombie. 

“Everything you’ve told us has been bad news!” Alex interjected. “Where’s the good news? What’s our silver lining?” 

“Where’s that damn cure that has a 35% success rate the fuckin’ government’s been keeping from us?” asked Nick, getting in Miles’ face. 

“There is no such thing!” Miles shouted, pushing Nick away. “That was all just some hoax a bunch of lazy ass good-for-nothings made up so that the media could stop hounding everyone! The bloody thing didn’t even work!” 

Miles walked away and kicked the stool in his way. 

“The fuck is he talking about?” asked Nick angrily. “We just heard not even a week ago that scientists were running tests on a cure for this fucking virus and now what? Just nothing? Who the fuck are we supposed to believe with all this bullshit?” 

“Believe us!” cried Josh. “Believe us, Nick. Whatever the government and the media is telling you…don’t buy that shit. Because they’re just feeding you what they think the public needs to hear.” 

Nick was still bewildered. Alex went over to Miles to try to calm him down while Jamie and Nick stayed put with Josh. 

“The cure was a bust. After the news broke about this cure, the animals that were tested started to die and the idea was to find something that wouldn’t kill the zombies. When the government found out that there were major side effects with the cure, they stopped all funding for research.” 

“Bullshit!” shouted Nick. “Fucking government, am I right?” 

“Why can’t we just get a group of scientists to start a Kickstarter to help fund for research for a cure?” asked Jamie. 

“I thought scientists were rich? Why would they need a Kickstarter campaign?” asked Nick. 

Alex and Miles were off to go find Matt. Matt was in the room next door. When Alex and Miles went to go check on him, they found that he was not where Miles and Josh left him. Alex helped Miles search all over the room to see if Matt was elsewhere in the room but no luck. Miles couldn’t think of any other place Matt could’ve been. Panicked, Alex and Miles went back into the room to find the others calmly discussing what the next option would be to cure Matt. 

“Is Matt in here?” asked Miles, a tremble in his voice. 

“Didn’t you just check the room where we left him?” asked Josh. 

“Yeah, but he’s not in there.” 

“He’s not?” 

“He’s not in there.” 

There was an unsettling silence among the group. A sense of panic grew internally among the five men upon the realization that a zombie was on the loose. On a hospital floor. Alex, Jamie, and Nick were royally screwed on the same level that Josh and Miles were. For different reasons, obviously, but all parties involved knew that they were screwed. 

“We gotta fucking find him!” cried Alex. “Now!” 

“Should we split up or..?” Miles began. 

“Fuck no. Splitting up is a terrible idea!” retorted Nick. “Haven’t you seen any horror movies made in the past 50 years or so?” 

“Not all of us lead sad lives, ya know..,” Jamie remarked. 

“Shut up! We gotta find Matt before Miles and I get fired and you three get eaten!” snapped Josh. “Let’s search on this floor in every room. He can’t have gone very far.” 

“Are we splitting up?” Miles repeated. 

“Don’t be fucking stupid,” Josh rolled his eyes. “Haven’t you seen any horror movies made in the past fifty years? That’s how we get killed.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Once again, thanks for reading this! I do enjoy writing this and any sort of support is greatly appreciated! Thanks! :) xx

“If we were the Mystery Gang, who would be which character?” asked Nick, trying to lighten the mood. 

“Are we really doing this?” asked Alex, irritated by Nick’s foolishness. 

The search for Matt was still on. After searching up and down on the fifth floor of St. George’s, Matt was nowhere to be found. Not a trace of him was left in any of the rooms which would’ve been a helpful hint for them. They assumed the worst that someone else found him and took him away. This was it. Game over. That was, until they found something important.

As Josh was locking up the lab and the room next door, he found something peculiar. Near the elevator was a fingertip. It was grey, the nail cracked and chipped, exposing the skin which gave off a foul smell when held close. Matt’s fingertip was the greatest discovery for the group because it assured them that Matt must have made it out of the floor, albeit one less toe. When the five got to the first floor, they asked the front desk lady if she had seen anyone leave the hospital recently. She paused for a moment, trying to think of who had left and said that she noticed a figure with a white sheet draped over himself, wearing sunglasses as he moved slowly out of the hospital. 

So now they were searching around the parking lot of St. George’s. There was no sign of Matt, leaving the group to wonder just how far did Matt go off? Did zombies have a sense of direction? Do they go where the other zombies tend to congregate? These were questions that Nick had asked the group but no one seemed to be listening, so changed the subject to Scooby Doo and the gang. 

“C’mon, who do you think I’d be from Scooby Doo? And don’t say I’m Scrappy Doo. Nobody likes Scrappy Doo,” said Nick. 

“Well I know who’d be Fred and Daphne,” said Josh, gesturing at Miles and Alex. Nick and Jamie laughed. 

“What are you saying?” asked Miles, confused. “Who would be who?” 

Jamie and Josh pondered. “You look kinda like Fred except with dark hair so I guess you’re Fred,” said Jamie. 

“Which means Alex is Daphne!” said Nick happily. 

“Hey now!” Alex protested. “Why do I have to be Daphne?” 

“Because you look…” Nick stopped himself before he could go on. He thought of his reason carefully. “First off, you’re probably the most fashionable out of all of us here as was Daphne. Second, uhh…you look good in purple?” 

Alex was somewhat amused by Nick’s answer. Although he didn’t understand the meaning behind it, Alex was gracious enough to take it for what it was. 

“So who’s Velma then?” asked Jamie. 

“Oh well that’s easy! Josh, obviously,” Nick stated, matter-of-factually. 

Alex and Miles snickered. 

“How come I have to be Velma?” asked Josh, slightly annoyed. 

“Because you’re the smart one,” Nick replied quickly. 

“And the red hair,” Jamie added. 

Josh nodded in agreement and turned to Miles. “You hear that? I’m the smart one!” 

“Josh, we have the same job,” said Miles, monotonously. 

Josh rolled his eyes, following behind Alex and Miles while Nick and Jamie were back further. 

“So then who would we be?” asked Jamie, referring to himself and Nick. 

“Uh…well,” Nick thought, pondering which of the two remaining characters he and Jamie would be. “I see you more as a Scooby than a Shaggy, mainly because of the hair. But you are fiercely loyal to our group. So…yeah, you’re Scooby and I’m Shaggy. And it’s so obvious that I’m the funny one too.” 

“I mainly agree with the bad hair part,” Alex laughed. 

“Shut up Daphne!” Nick retorted, punching Alex in the arm. 

“Guys, did you see that?” asked Miles, pointing at the bushes. 

The four of them looked at what Miles was pointing at. The bushes were still. Nothing was out of the ordinary, it appeared to the others. They glanced at Miles who was wide eyed over what he may or may not have seen. 

“But it’s just bushes,” said Jamie. 

“I saw them move!” cried Miles. 

“If you saw them move, how come we didn’t see them move?” asked Nick. 

“Because you all weren’t paying attention! I think Matt’s behind these bushes.” 

“I don’t think so. Why would Matt want to hide in the bushes?” asked Alex quietly. 

“Really Alex? Even you? C’mon, I’ll prove it to you he’s behind them!” 

Miles stepped forward from the middle of the group and walked over to the bushes. When he got closer to them, he turned back to the group who stared at him blankly. He heaved a sigh and parted the bushes in half. Looking behind them and double checking, he found nothing. He swore he thought he saw something move. At least, he think he did. But he didn’t want to tell the others that, out of fear that they’d ridicule him for being wrong. Just as he was about to tell the others, he thought he saw something else. He looked down to see what it was and was intrigued by the discovery. After being pricked a couple of times by the needles, Miles emerged from the bushes with the object held tightly behind his back. 

“Hey Al, what was it you said that you were feeding Matt?” asked Miles as he was coming back over to the group. 

“Rabbits,” replied Alex. “We were feeding Matt rabbits and any other outdoor animal that was in the backyard. Why do you ask?” 

“Because I think Matt got himself a little nighttime snack for the road.” 

Miles pulled out from behind his back what was left of a white rabbit’s head, mangled and bloodied. There were patches of white fur left on the ears of the rabbit but the most gruesome part was its skull. It appeared to have been crushed by teeth, the fur nearly all off of it. Miles was hoping that this would be a big discovery in search of Matt but instead, it had a different response. 

“Miles, throw that disgusting thing away,” Nick said gravely. 

“Why the fuck would you show us that?” asked Alex, holding his stomach. 

“Guys, you’re the ones who said that Matt was eating rabbits!” cried Miles. “And maybe he was here, judging from the freshness of the blood on this skull.” 

“How do you know it’s still fresh?” asked Jamie. 

“The blood is still wet,” said Miles, flatly. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Guys, maybe we should try driving around the city to find ‘im? What use is it going around in a parking lot to look for Matt when he’s probably long gone?” asked Alex. 

“And what’s the plan if we find ‘im?” asked Jamie. 

“Not if we find ‘im, WHEN we find ‘im,” Alex corrected. 

“Then we can bring ‘im back to me place. You’re all welcome to crash there for the night,” Miles offered. 

“Whose car are we taking?” asked Josh.  
“Our car can fit five people,” Nick volunteered. 

“Does it smell like zombie?” 

“No Josh, I happened to spray Febreeze in the entire vehicle before we came in the hospital.” 

“Whatever you say…” 

The five of them hopped into Nick’s car and slowly drove out of the parking lot of the hospital. Nick drove them around the hospital a couple of times to see if maybe Matt was hanging around but there was no sign of him. This was troublesome for everyone. No one knew how far he could’ve gone and judging by the rate of how the zombies moved, there was a good chance Matt was going at a very slow pace. Meanwhile, Josh and Miles had their own discomfort about something else. 

“Ugh, dude. This car fucking reeks!” Josh gagged. “Seriously, who sharted in here?” 

“It smells like a used diaper with vomit being masked by Febreeze,” agreed Miles, covering his nose with his shirt. “Seriously, is this what you’ve been doing about the smell he leaves? Febreezing the shite out of everything?” 

“Well we don’t see you coming up with a better solution so pipe down!” Nick called out. “Besides, I don’t wanna hear anymore. I’ve gotta keep me eye on the road for zombies.” 

“It’s the second time you’ve driven around this hospital,” Jamie groaned. “He’s not near the hospital. Let’s try to expand our search to the block.” 

Nick turned the car around. He continued to drive slowly as he made his way down the block. He and his friends looked around the barren street. To the boys from Sheffield, London always appeared to them as this vibrant city that was just an extension of the bar scene in High Green. It was great and all, but home was home. Sheffield was the place to be for them. Although they wanted Matt to be back to normal, what they wanted more was to just go home and get back to their regular lives. 

So far, there was no sign of Matt. Nick was too focused on what was out on the street that he didn’t notice the large animal that he was driving towards. Jamie was the only one to see this. He gasped at the sight of it. He couldn’t make out what animal it was due to the lights not being bright enough to see. It was moving rather slow on all fours and didn’t notice that the car was about to hit it head on. 

“DUDE!” screamed Jamie, grabbing the wheel from Nick. 

Jamie steered the wheel and the car swerved to the right. Nick took the wheel, fighting with Jamie for control of it and hit the animal head on. The animal flew out and rolled onto the street after it was hit. Nick shoved Jamie over and regained full control of the steering wheel. He then pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car. Nick took the keys out of the ignition and glowered at Jamie. His face was red and his eyes dark. Jamie’s eyes were wide, filled with fear that perhaps Nick was going to throw him out of the car. Meanwhile, Alex, Josh, and Miles held their breath, out of fear that Nick was going to erupt if any of them said a word. 

“You fucker!” Nick yelled, punching Jamie in the arm really hard. “You fucker! Why the hell did you grab the wheel from me?” 

“I’m sorry I tried to save our lives on account of you not paying attention to the road!” Jamie argued, shoving Nick back. 

“I was gonna avoid it!” 

“Bullshit me arse!” 

“Does anyone in here not give a shite that we just ran an overgrown possum over with our car or are we just gonna keep on fucking yelling?” Alex yelled. 

Everyone in the car was silent. No one dared to say another word, the universal thought being that it would just lead to everyone getting upset at each other. At first, Nick was going to say something to Alex about staying out of the argument, but then he thought that there was nothing to really argue about. Nick knew he was wrong and fighting with Jamie was only going to make things worse. Nick and Jamie quickly said sorry to each other and moved on from the whole tiff. Still, no one got why Alex had to get angry in the first place. At the same time, it was almost okay that he silence Jamie and Nick. He had been stressed out about the care and well-being of Matt since he’d been bitten. He had only let his emotions get the best of him once during this whole thing. There was a sense of relief Alex felt after he yelled at his best friends. Like a great deal of weight was lifted off of him. Alex took a deep breath, recollected himself, and got out of the car. 

Jamie and Nick got out after and then Miles and Josh followed. While Nick went to check out the car, everyone else went to see the animal. They all gathered around it and were shocked to see what it really was. This was no overgrown possum like Alex said it was. No, what they ran over was something worse than an animal. Seeing the shape that it was in horrified everyone. Alex had to run out into the field to go throw up, it made him that sick. How were they going to save this creature over such an honest mistake? 

Meanwhile, Nick found only a few dents on the front of the car. Nothing too serious that could easily be fixed, he thought to himself. Nick nodded to himself and looked over at the group. He hoped that whatever he hit wasn’t in too bad of shape. He was actually hoping the thing was just unconscious. God forbid if the thing was dead, what were they going to do with a dead possum or whatever the hell that animal was out there. 

“Good news everyone, the car’s okay!” said Nick excitedly. “That ol’ beauty’s a fighter. I wonder how bad this fucker had-“ 

Nick joined in with the group looking around at everyone’s faces. When he looked down at the casualty in question, he yelped. This was no animal he had hit. Lying on the cold hard pavement was Matt’s decaying zombified body, just barely breathing.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Once again, thanks for all the support and feedback! I greatly appreciate it and I enjoy writing this story a lot, especially with a genre I've never really written before! Anyway, here's the latest chapter and I hope you all enjoy it!! Thank you!! :) xx

It was a frantic drive home from St. George’s. No one was sure of where to put Matt so their only logical solution was to put him in the trunk and hope that he wouldn’t try to bust out. Miles lived in a nice, ranch style home just outside of the city that was a fifteen minute drive from St. George’s. It wasn’t a terribly small house, accommodating for about six people to crash for the night. When they brought Matt in, they set him down on the couch. Miles and Alex ran to get some pillows and blankets while the other three just sat around Matt, making sure that he was okay. 

“Is he still breathing?” Alex asked frantically, putting a blanket on over Matt. 

“He is,” said Josh, putting a pillow underneath Matt’s head. “It’s irregular but it’s seemed to be that way even when we did our tests on him earlier.” 

“Zombies don’t have normal breathing patterns like we do,” said Miles, fluffing more pillows up. “Their respiratory systems are more irregular than ours. Their lungs are smaller than ours so they breathe in short bursts. With Matt, sometimes he has short bursts like a zombie, sometimes it’s long like a human’s.” 

The others moved their discussion into the kitchen while they let Matt sleep in the living room. Miles cooked some pasta for everyone while everyone else talked about what the next step was for the blood transfusion. 

“A really neat thing that Miles and I found when we were going over Matt’s blood work was this,” said Josh, twirling his spaghetti on his fork. “Matt’s blood was easily identifiable as far as types go. You see, most scientists were lead to believe that with zombie blood, you can’t identify the blood type. Once a person is dead, then all living organs cease to exist right? That’s what their impression was.” 

“Well not only that but who in their right mind would actually go out to find a living zombie and do blood work on them, without getting bitten?” Miles added as he brought over some lagers for his friends to the table. 

“True. It turns out that Matt’s blood type is B positive. All we need to do is find someone who matches his blood type, give him a small transfusion, just a small one to test it out, and go from there.” 

“How are we going to figure out who is a perfect match with Matt’s blood type?” asked Alex. “Shouldn’t you guys have done that before?” 

“Well we would have but SOMEONE forgot to make sure that the zombie didn’t escape!” 

Josh narrowed his eyes at Miles. 

“Well how was I to know that he was going to wander off so far?” Miles protested. “Zombies always move slow, right?” 

“No, not all zombies move slow,” said Jamie. “Didn’t you ever read World War Z?” 

“No, because I don’t read up on zombie literature.” 

“Guys, it doesn’t matter,” said Nick. “Josh, how long do you think it’ll take to give Matt a blood transfusion?” 

“It shouldn’t take long as long as he can be sedated,” Josh answered. “All we need is either Type B blood or Type O blood for the transfusion to work.” 

“Is there a difference on which type you’d rather have?” asked Jamie. 

“We’d rather it be B over O because it’s so common,” Miles replied. “Do you guys know what your types are? Perhaps we could get it from one of you.” 

“Do I look like I have my blood type memorized?” asked Nick sarcastically. “Hell, I didn’t know Matt’s blood type until today! I assume you two nerds know your blood types off the back of your heads!” 

“Of course we do. I’m AB negative and Josh is A negative. If in a dire situation I was in need of blood, Josh could donate it to me! But sadly I can’t do the same for him because I can only donate to those who have an AB blood type.” 

Josh and Miles grinned at one another. Nick rolled his eyes and hit his head on the table. Alex liked hearing how excited Miles was to talk about blood types and who can donate to who. 

“I love talking about blood donations,” said Josh excitedly. “But I do agree that it’s sad we can’t return the favor to each other.” 

“You two are fucking nerds,” mumbled Nick, his head still on the table. 

“What exact type do we have to be in order for the transfusion to work?” asked Jamie. 

“B positive, B negative, O positive, and O negative,” Josh listed off. “If one of you has any of those types, it’d be perfect. What’d be even more perfect is if you’re a B.” 

Jamie, Nick, and Alex turned to each other and nodded their heads in agreement. They were willing to do anything for Matt. If the test worked, that would mean Matt could go back to being himself in no time. It’d been a long journey for them to save their best friend and they really hoped that the end was in sight. 

“Okay,” said Alex. “I mean, you guys are with us for the long haul on this one.” 

There was a thud in the other room. Alex jumped from his seat and peared over to see where it was coming from. He noticed that Matt was lying on the floor, blanket still covering him. Figuring that Matt just fell out of bed, Alex turned around. 

“What was that?” asked Miles. 

“Oh, nothing,” Alex shrugged off. “Matt just fell off the couch. He’s done this before so he can get back up, I think.” 

There was another thud from the other room. This time, Jamie turned his chair to see what was going on. Matt’s body was rolled over, his body wrapped in the blanket like a burrito. 

“Hey,” said Jamie quietly. “Suppose one of us should go check on “im?” 

“Is he sleeping?” asked Nick. 

Jamie craned his neck out farther to get a better look. “He’s wrapped up like a burrito on the floor.” 

“Eh, he’ll be fine. Hey Miles, mind if I grab meself another beer?” 

“No problem,” Miles called over. “I’ve only got lager in the fridge if that’s alright?” 

“Fine and dandy!” 

Nick opened up the fridge and looked around to find the beer. He found himself another and grabbed that from the front. Behind the lager, Nick noticed Miles had a bottle of champagne. Pink Moet and Chandon to be exact. Nick scrunched his nose up at the sight of this. Who would keep a bottle of Moet and Chandon in the fridge all to himself, he thought to himself. Carefully, he put the lager away and grabbed the champagne bottle without knocking over any of the other stuff that was in front of it. 

“Miles,” said Nick, holding the refrigerator door open. “What’s with the bottle of-“ 

Nick shut the door closed and looked down at the floor He jumped up and screamed, dropping the bottle on the floor. It hit the ground and shattered, glass and champagne were all over the floor surround Nick. 

Matt, covered up in his blanket burrito, looked up at Nick and his black eyes glared at him. His face was all grey and covered in cuts and scrapes, from all the hits he had taken being thrown around on the road. Matt was growling at him, his dirty teeth gritted together. Nick stood still as Matt slithered closer. Miles got up from his seat to see what Nick wanted. He didn’t notice Matt at first and saw the broken pieces of glass. 

“Nick for fuck’s sake!” exclaimed Miles. “What are you doing-“ 

Miles gasped when he saw Matt, in his blanket burrito, inching himself closer to Nick. Nick had backed himself up the corner of the kitchen but it was no use. He climbed up on the counter space as he watched Matt hit his head on the cabinets. Alex, Jamie, and Josh stood up to see what was going on. When they saw Nick curled up in a ball on the counter top, they went out to the garage to find something to defend themselves with. Meanwhile, Nick looked around on the countertop and found himself a weapon to defend him from Matt. He grabbed a par of tongs and held those up in front of Matt’s face. 

“Stay back,” Nick’s voice quivered. “Stay back I say!” 

Nick just clapped the tongs in Matt’s face, hoping it would scare him off. Matt was unamused and snatched them out of his hand with his teeth. Spitting the tongs out of his mouth, an arm emerged from the blanket burrito as he grabbed the edge of the counter. Nick kicked his hand off each time he tried to climb up with him but then Matt grabbed a hold of Nick’s foot and held onto it tight. 

“Food…” groaned Matt in a sluggish voice. “FOOD!” 

“MILES!” screamed Nick. “DO SOMETHING!” 

“But there’s glass all over the floor!” cried Miles. 

“Well fuck that! Just do something before I’m zombie dinner!” 

Miles went to the closet to find something. Nick kept pulling himself up as Matt tried to pull him down. He then grabbed a hold of a wooden spoon and smacked Matt in the head repeatedly. He let go of Nick’s foot and curled back into the blanket to hide from Nick’s spoon. Matt was shaking inside his blanket burrito. Miles came back with a broom and dustpan. When Nick saw this, he rolled his eyes. 

“Really? That’s what you’re defending yourself with?” asked Nick. 

“Yes,” said Miles firmly. “Plus I don’t want anyone to step on the glass. Help me out while he’s still hiding.” 

Nick lowered himself onto the floor and cleaned up his mess with Miles. While Miles swept up all the broken glass, Nick was mopping up all the champagne that had spilled on the floor with some paper towels. All the while, Matt stayed very still in his burrito blanket. 

“I meant to ask what you were doing with champagne in your fridge,” said Nick throwing the last bit of glass in the garbage. “But then Matt tried to eat my foot from his burrito blanket.” 

“The Moet and Chandon?” asked Miles, almost forgetting that Nick had accidentally dropped it in the first place. “Oh my god, that needed to be thrown away. I got that when I got accepted into Stanford for my fellowship. It probably went flat anyway.” 

“Miles! Nick! Thank god you’re alright!” Alex exclaimed, running towards Miles and Nick. 

Alex, Jamie, and Josh came back into the kitchen armed with weapons of self-defense. Alex was holding a baseball bat, Jamie a shovel, and Josh was carrying a chainsaw with him. Everyone turned to see what they had armed themselves with. There was a quite a bit reaction to what each person had, especially Josh. 

“Really Josh? A chainsaw?” asked Nick. “We’re not killing Matt just because he’s a zombie.” 

“I’m not using it to kill him!” sneered Josh. “It’d be something to scare him off with.” 

“Or we could use it to amputate someone in case they get bitten by Matt,” said Jamie. 

“Yeah right,” snorted Nick. “I knocked the bugger out. What more could he do to me?” 

As soon as he said this, Nick felt something grab his leg. He screamed when he saw that Matt had woken up and was ready to take a bite into his foot. He kicked Matt off of him and went sliding across the floor.

“Food…FOOD!” growled Matt loudly as he inched over to the group. 

Jamie ran straight towards him and tackled Matt to stop him from movie. Jamie wrestled him down, trying to get him to hold still but Matt broke out of his blanket burrito and broke out of Jamie’s arms. He crawled over towards him, mouth drooling with saliva. Matt was hungry, so hungry. All he wanted was a little nibble of Nick’s foot. Or perhaps Jamie’s arm would’ve been much tastier. 

“Food…my food,” Matt growled, drooling all over the floor. 

Jamie reached out for his shovel. He scooted himself over to the shovel but Matt was still following him. 

“Matt! Matt!” Alex called over. “I’ve got food for you!” 

Matt turned around and saw Alex and Nick at the door with Alex holding up one of Nick’s shoes. Intrigued, Matt crawled over to Alex and Nick. Nick opened the door up just a little more as Matt got closer. Once he was close enough, Alex threw the shoe into the basement and Matt peered down to see where it went. When Matt leaned down just far enough, Nick pushed him down the stairs and quickly locked the door on him. 

After they locked Matt out, it was time to go to bed. No one felt comfortable about all sleeping separately so everyone slept in the living room, just like it was one big sleep over. When the guys went to sleep, they heard scratching and moaning coming from the basement. Matt was hungry and he wasn’t going to stop groaning until he was fed. 

“Food…FOOD!” 

It had been going on for three hours and there wasn’t any sign of it stopping. No one dared to get up to go and check on Matt, mainly because no one wanted to get pulled down into the basement and get eaten. 

“Alex, go feed ‘im,” Jamie volunteered, covering his ears with a pillow. 

“But why?” Alex complained. 

“Because out of everyone in this room, you’re probably the last person to be eaten,” said Josh. 

“But what do I feed ‘im?” 

“Give ‘im some pasta I put in a container and throw it down there,” grumbled Miles. “Just don’t forget to lock the door.” 

“Okay…” 

Alex got out of bed and went to the kitchen for some leftover pasta. The scratching and moaning was getting quieter as he got closer to the door. When he reached for the doorknob to the basement, he heard nothing. Alex opened the door slowly and peered down to see if Matt was down there. It was pitch black. He thought about turning on a light but was afraid it might frighten Matt. 

“Here buddy, you need to eat real food,” Alex said quietly, throwing the container down the stairs. 

Alex didn’t bother to check if Matt got his food or not. He just locked the door and went back to bed. Alex tried to sleep but he just kept tossing and turning. Something didn’t feel right with him. Then he woke up, collected his blanket and pillow, and went back to the basement door. Alex pressed his ear against door but he couldn’t hear anything. He hoped that Matt was going to get better really soon. He missed having his best friend around. Setting up his pillow and blanket, Alex curled up against the door and fell fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank The Evil Dead for inspiring me to write this chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Once again, thank you so much for the support of this piece! I really do enjoy writing this and any feedback or support is greatly appreciated and I thank you all again. :) xx

Alex woke up the next morning to pounding in his head. He hadn’t felt a headache this bad in a long time, he thought to himself. The pounding continued on in his head. It just kept getting louder and louder. He sat up on the floor and turned to the door. Alex realized that the pounding wasn’t all in his head. It was coming from behind the door. Matt was awake and had to be hungry by now. 

Alex sighed and collected his things from off the floor. He reached for the doorknob but stopped himself. Alex didn’t have any food for Matt and should he open the door, who knows if Matt would get out and try to eat him. Even though everyone else thought Alex had some sort of immunity from being eaten by Matt, who would really know. The pounding had stopped. Was Matt only doing this for the attention? He shook his head and went into the other room to wake the others.   
The others were sleeping soundly when Alex entered the room. He dared not to make too much noise when he set his pillow and blanket down on the chair. He figured he would let the others sleep since he didn’t feel like going back to bed. He went back into the kitchen and turned to the door. Did he dare unlock that door and go downstairs, knowing very well that Matt could attack him? Alex figured why not, what harm could it possibly do? 

He opened the door slowly. He looked down the dark basement but saw no sudden movements coming from Matt. Perhaps Matt went back to sleep, Alex thought. He was hesitant on turning on the lights, worried that it might scare him. He turned on the lights anyway. Step by step, he walked slowly down the stairs. 

Alex looked around the basement to find Matt but there was no sign of him. Miles’ basement was dusty, filled with boxes and old furniture. There was a bar in one corner but it didn’t look like it was used very often. At the bottom of the steps, Alex found the container of pasta he threw down last night. It was completely empty but it looked like Matt tried to chew on the container. He also found Nick’s show from last night as well. Noticing that the basement door was wide open, he threw the container and the shoe up and it landed at the foot of the stairs. Alex felt proud of his small athletic accomplishment. 

“Meeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” growled Matt. 

Alex looked straight ahead and saw Matt sitting up on the couch. Matt’s face was smeared with nearly week-old clown makeup and spaghetti sauce. Beneath the white makeup, you could see his grey skin and his eyes were black as night. His lips were chapped and drooling was running from his mouth, getting all over his clown costume. Alex kept his eyes on him as he backed away slowly from his zombie best friend. 

“M-M-Matt...,” Alex stuttered. “P-please don’t.” 

“MMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” 

Matt climbed over the couch and fell down. He rolled over and began to crawl towards Alex. Alex kept walking backwards up the stairs until he missed a step and fell backwards, hitting his head hard. He turned to see that Matt was catching up to him. Panicked, he lifted himself back up and went straight up the stairs. As soon as he reached the top of the floor, he tripped again and fell down, clutching onto the top of the steps. He tried to push himself up but was stopped when Matt had caught a hold of his foot. 

“Let go! Let go!” cried Alex, kicking Matt’s face. 

“EEEENGGGHHH EEEENGGGGH EEEENGGGGH!” 

Matt wouldn’t budge. Alex presented him with breakfast and Matt wasn’t going to be denied of his human flesh this time. Alex gripped onto the top stair and managed to kick Matt off him. The more Alex kicked him, the angrier Matt got. Still he just kept going after that foot. After all, it looked so tasty and Matt was really hungry. Alex felt someone grab his hand and pull him up from the stairs. He fell into Miles’ arms. Miles kicked the door shut, slamming it on Matt’s face. Alex and Miles locked eyes with each other while Josh pushed his weight on the door and locked it. 

“Miles,” Alex said breathlessly, still holding tightly onto him.

Matt was pounding on the door. He groaned and grunted for his food, begging to be fed. Josh kicked the door and yelled at him to shut up. Scared, Matt stopped terrorizing the others for food from behind the door.

“Hey Fred and Daphne, you need a room?” Nick asked jokingly. 

Alex scowled at Nick. Miles gave Nick a punch in the arm and went to the cupboard to find some food for Matt. 

“What were you doing down there in the first place?” asked Miles, pouring a bowl of cereal for the zombie. 

“I was just going to get Nick’s shoe,” said Alex, pointing to the shoe he had thrown at the top of the stairs. “But then Matt woke up and tried to eat me! He’s gone mad I tell you! Why would he do this? I don’t understand!” 

“Alex, please,” Jamie stepped in and put his hands on Alex’s shoulders. “Alex, it’s not something you did. Do you understand? Matt’s not ‘imself. It’s the virus in ‘im. He wants to eat human flesh because that’s how zombies survive. To ‘im, we’re just one big fancy feast.” 

Alex took a deep breath. “But then why did he eat the spaghetti I threw him down last night? Do you guys have any explanation?” 

“Well, like any functioning living person, or in our case, living dead,” said Miles, walking over to the basement door with a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles in one hand. “Matt’s gotta eat. In his case, Matt will eat anything that is thrown in his face, whether it be a foot…” 

Miles unlocked the door and placed the bowl of cereal at the top of the stairs. The five of them waited around for Matt to come climbing up the stairs, ready to devour his food. There was a muffled grunt that came from the bottom of the steps. Then Matt crawled his way up the stairs until he reached the top.   
He stopped and looked around at everyone staring at him. He looked down at the bowl of Cocoa Pebbles that was presented to him. He smiled, his grin showing a decayed smile, teeth all grey and filled with rabbit meat stuck between the teeth. His breath was much worse. With all the wildlife he had consumed, he hadn’t had his teeth brushed in about a week. 

“Food! Food! Cocoa food!” Matt exclaimed and dunked his head into the bowl of cereal. 

The five of them watched in disgust as Matt ate, swallowed, and licked clean of the bowl of cereal that was presented to him. While Josh and Miles were appalled by how Matt was eating, the other three walked away from the sight, feeling remorse for their best friend. Matt didn’t even like Cocoa Pebbles to begin with. They knew that’s not how he would eat his cereal, even if he was drunk. This was miserable for them to see Matt descent to this animal he had become, going after his best friends for food because that was the only way he could survive. 

“Guys,” Alex whispered to Jamie and Nick, “what if he doesn’t make it?” 

Jamie and Nick turned their heads in shock. Alex’s brown eyes looked dark and filled with worry. They looked to each other and wondered how to answer the question without making him upset. But this was also something that hadn’t considered since enlisting the help of Miles and Josh. They needed to understand that sometimes science isn’t perfect and the situation at hand they were dealing with, was being done by amateurs. Everyone was an amateur in this predicament. 

“What if he doesn’t make it?” Alex repeated. “What if the transfusion goes horribly wrong and he becomes incurable? What do we do with ‘im then?” 

Neither of them wanted to say it. If they said it, Alex was going to have a fit. He would scream and cry and never be able to live with the fact that his best friend would be dead. If there was one person he loved more than anyone in the world, it was Matt. Alex couldn’t live in a world without Matt. 

WHACK! THUD! 

“Bloody freaking hell!” Jamie yelped, jumping up in the air. 

The three of them turned around to see what just happened. Matt was face down in his bowl of cereal with Josh dragging him by the feet. Miles followed behind, holding the broom he found from last night. 

“Miles!” cried Nick. “A broom? Really?” 

Miles shrugged. “How the bloody hell did you think we were going to take ‘im back to the hospital?” 

 

Back at St. George’s, Josh and Miles were getting the others ready for their blood work. Meanwhile, Matt was currently covered up on a gurney, still knocked out from earlier. Josh checked on him every now and then to make sure that he was still breathing. 

“Should we have eaten something before?” asked Nick, watching Josh wrap an elastic band around his arm. 

“Nah,” Josh shook his head while he cleaned the needle. “People think they do but really it’s not necessary to do a lot of prep work.” 

Josh carefully put the needle in the vein and drew the blood. Once enough blood was collected, he removed the band from Nick’s arm. Afterwards, he put a gauze pad over the needle, carefully removing it. To finish it off, Josh put a bandage over the gauze. He repeated the same steps with Alex and Jamie while Miles collected the samples and took them over to his desk. 

“How long do we have to wait for the results of the tests?” asked Jamie, scratching the bandage on his arm. 

“Not long,” said Josh. “And stop scratching your bandage too. You need to keep the pressure on there.” 

“But this bothers me…” 

“Relax Jamie. Miles just needs to look over at the samples we took from Matt and see if we can find a match with any of you.” 

“Hey Alex! Do you wanna check out these samples over here?” Miles called over. 

“Sure!” Alex responded excitedly, walking over to Miles’ lab area. 

Jamie, Josh, and Nick watched quietly as Miles showed Alex all the different blood samples that were collected. Watching the way Alex acted around Miles made Jamie and Nick happy for the two of them. They knew they could be difficult towards Alex from time to time but in the end, he was their best friend too. They were all best friends. But there were those obvious bonds that were much more prevalent than others were. Matt and Alex had each other the way that Jamie and Nick had one another. Regardless of who was closer to whom, they all deeply cared for each other equally. 

“They look happy,” Josh observed, glancing back at Jamie and Nick. 

“Well, whatever makes Alex happy really,” said Nick. “Mate’s never really had a preference per say…” 

“Yeah,” agreed Jamie. “I just wish he’d be this happy all the time though. This week’s been rough on all of us. The most rough on ‘im I suppose.” 

“He’s closest to Matt, isn’t he?” asked Josh. 

“How’d you guess?” asked Nick. 

“I could just tell immediately as soon as you guys walked in here. Poor guy was constantly looking out for Matt. He probably could care less if he was bitten himself. I don’t think he could stand to live without Matt really.” 

Jamie and Nick sighed. 

“Which is why I’m banking on this transfusion to work. Look guys, I don’t give a damn if all of you are type O. I’d rather you guys be that than anything else. This transfusion man…it’s gotta fucking work. I’m not gonna let his corpse rot into the ground and die. I can’t see you guys lose your best friend…I lost my own best friend to fucking zombies…” 

Jamie and Nick were stunned. They continued to listen to Josh’s story. 

“Right when the epidemic started, my best friend Dave and I were stumbling around after a night of drinking…We were dumb, so fucking dumb. I hadn’t seen this guy in ages and I just wanted to show him a good time. This big, giant ass zombie just stands there in the middle of the road. We don’t make anything of it since he wasn’t moving. We throw rocks at it, taunt it. Then we get up in its face and it bites Dave’s face off.” 

Jamie gasped. Nick leaned in from the edge of his seat to listen more closely. 

“I’m freaking out because the zombie is eating Dave’s face. But then I think, I’m gonna fight this asshole! So I did. I fought that zombie with my bare hands. It was an ugly sight, lemme tell you. I just tackled that zombie to the ground and body slammed it. Then I just kept bashing it’s head into the pavement until there was no more head. Bloody mess I tell ya…But it wasn’t enough. Doctors couldn’t do anything to save Dave. Even if they wanted to save him, he’d still be a zombie. So it was better to just…” 

Nick and Jamie knew what he meant. Josh’s story was heartbreaking. Now they felt awful about once considering the option of killing Matt if nothing worked. This whole thing for Josh wasn’t just about doing them a huge favor. Rather, it was about making right what could’ve been done for Dave. 

“No one is gonna die on my watch. And I can promise you that,” said Josh. “One of you has to be a match. Any one of you can make this blood transfusion work.” 

“Hey guys,” announced Miles, with Alex standing close behind. “The results are in.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, thanks for being patient with me and this chapter. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated and I thank you all for reading this and the continued support once again!! :) xx

“NO MATCHES?!?!” screamed Josh, kicking a chair over. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO MATCHES??” 

Miles shook his head. “No matches. None of the blood samples we got from them contained B or O.” 

Josh threw another chair over the table. Alex and Jamie were terrified at how angry Josh was. Nick, on the other hand, seemed to be unfazed by this. As if it was expected of him to get this mad. 

“I was just as surprised when I saw the results,” Miles continued. “Did you know that you’re all AB type?” 

“What? That’s impossible! How could this be?” Alex, Jamie, and Nick said all at once, shocked that such a phenomenon could occur between three best friends. 

“So Matt can’t take any of our blood? Can you do something to…I don’t know, like drain all of Matt’s blood so that he can only take our blood type?” asked Nick. 

Jamie and Alex stared at Nick dumbfound, amazed that he would even consider asking such a stupid question like that. Josh bit his lip, trying not to laugh at Nick’s question while Miles kept his cool and sighed. Nick didn’t notice at first and really, his heart was in the right place. While Nick may not have realized what he suggested, the intentions to save Matt were for good. 

“No Nick,” said Miles calmly, “that’s not how this all works. We can’t drain his blood. That’s just..not possible or even…” 

Miles trailed off, still confused at what Nick was even trying to suggest. Even he couldn’t help but be flabbergasted at Nick’s initial suggestion. 

“I think what-“Josh had to stop himself from trying to laugh before he could start over. “I think what my partner is trying to say is, what you’re talking about is vampirism. I’m about 90% sure we’d just kill Matt in the process of that.” 

“Wait…” Nick looked around at his friends and realized what he meant with his words. The wheels were turning in his head and soon the lightbulb went off in his head. He felt so stupid for opening his mouth in the first place. “Oh my god, I’m an idiot. What the hell, I am an idiot…” 

“Nick, it’s okay,” Alex reassured him. “I know your heart was in the right place and all…it’s just…” 

“We’d basically be killing Matt and we want to avoid that at all costs,” Jamie chimed it. “But your heart was in the right place though.” 

“But seriously, what are we going to do about Matt without the blood we need?” asked Josh. “Without the blood, Matt’s gonna get worse every day. And we can’t just keep knocking this lugnut out at every chance we get either.” 

“Hey, I know I already made a dumb ass suggestion before but I’ve also got another idea,” Nick spoke up quietly. “We’re already in a hospital filled with people that have blood in their systems…I mean…” 

The five of them looked around and then their attention was turned to Josh and Miles. Miles shook his head while Josh stood there quietly. 

“Absolutely not,” Miles asserted. “That is completely against protocol to steal a patient’s blood, even if it is for the well-being of another patient.” 

“Why not though?” Josh asked Miles. 

“It’s illegal!” 

“Yeah…” 

“WE COULD LOSE OUR LISCENSES OVER THIS!!!” 

“But Matt will die if we don’t do this..” 

“WE WILL HAVE NO JOBS IF WE DO THIS!!!” 

“Matt is gonna eat us if we don’t find some blood…” 

“ARE YOU NOT HEARING YOURSELF JOSH???” 

“Let me clarify that suggestion,” Nick interrupted. “Find some Type B blood in this hospital that’s lying around in a bag and use that, you fucking nerds. No one gets fired and Matt doesn’t die. Boom, problem solved.” 

“Oh my god, Shaggy’s right,” said Jamie, turning to Josh and Miles. “Surely you guys can just grab one of those bags of blood that have Matt’s exact blood type and just take a small sample of that, right?” 

Josh shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t see anything wrong with that…”   
Miles shook his head and stared at Josh, gob smacked. There was no use trying to argue with Josh at this point. Anything that he was going to say would be of no use. Josh was absolutely determined to get that blood type, any way possible. He turned back to the other three. They were waiting for his approval. How was he to say no with those eyes they were giving him, especially Alex? Alex’s best friend was in trouble and all this effort would be for nothing if they didn’t do something about it. But Miles didn’t want to risk losing his job. He loved this job. But what about helping his friends? What about helping Alex? 

“Okay..,” Miles replied quietly. “We’re gonna do this…” 

“Are you really in?” Josh asked. 

Miles nodded and with just a little confidence he said, “Yeah. I’m in.” 

Getting the blood proved to be much easier for Josh and Miles than they had anticipated. Josh and Miles were able to get a bag of B positive blood upon request. Josh had to be the one to make the request to the Chief of Staff. Josh told them that it was for an experiment on the different types of positive blood types. Miles was much too nervous to say something. He couldn’t even look at the Chief of Staff in the eye. When Josh offered Miles to carry the bag, he was still too nervous. All the while as they went to take the blood back to their lab, all Miles could think of what if they got caught. Josh kept reassuring him that everything was going to be alright and that this was going to save Matt. This made Miles feel better. After a few deep breaths, Miles was much calmer. 

They came back with smiles on their faces but when they opened the door to their lab, those smiles were gone. Matt wasn’t on the gurney. In one corner, Alex, Jamie, and Nick were all huddled together, shaking at the sight of Matt crawling towards them. 

“Thank god,” Jamie whispered. “He’s AWAKE!” 

Matt’s head shot up and turned to Josh and Miles. The look on Matt’s face, with his black eyes and the way his mouth turned made them stiff as boards. Matt scratched his face, his fingernails digging into the skin and peeling it off to reveal the pink and red flesh that was underneath his grey skin. Josh winced at the sight of Matt peeling his skin off so easily. Miles backed away slowly as Matt crawled closer. Josh stood still, clutching onto the bag of blood tightly. 

“UNGH!” groaned Matt. 

Josh stood right where he was, shielding Miles. He didn’t let the zombie see the fear in his eyes, maintaining direct eye contact. He turned around to check on Miles but he was not behind him anymore. Josh turned back around to see that Matt grabbed hold of his foot. 

“Fucking zombie!” Josh cried. 

Josh kicked Matt square in the face and sent him sliding back into the wall. Alex, Jamie, and Nick grabbed him and put him back on the gurney. 

“Miles, get me something to hold him down!” Alex called out. 

Miles scrambled around the room to find any sort of rope that would suffice to keep Matt still. Josh went over to the others with the bag of blood and a needle in both hands. Matt was struggling to break free but his friends kept him pinned down, infuriating him more. 

“ERRRGH ERRGH ERRRRRRGGGGHH!!!!!!!!“ 

Matt broke free from the clutches of his friends and rolled off the gurney. Pulling himself off the floor, he took one slow step and then another. Matt was through with trying to fight with his friends, fighting with being a zombie. If they weren’t going to accept him for what he’d now become, he was going to go elsewhere. Hobbling towards the door, Matt could taste the freedom and the fresh flesh that was awaiting him. Fuck those guys, he thought. He had lost any sort of appetite to eat any of that bunch, he thought to himself. 

“NO!” 

Matt stopped. He looked up to see that Alex was blocking the door, basically presenting himself as a free meal for Matt. The others stood around Alex, half unsure of what was going to happen next and half scared of what could possibly happen. Matt could care less about the others. He was paying attention to Alex. 

“Matt,” said Alex, lowering his voice. “You don’t have to do this. We’re here for you.” Alex looked around to see Jamie and Nick on one side of him with Jamie and Miles on his other side. He turned back to Matt and said, “We want to help you. This isn’t who you are. We want you back. I want you back! I want my best friend back. I know that he’s still in there.” Alex pointed to Matt’s heart. “Is he still there? Are you still there Matt?” 

Matt looked down at where Alex was pointing. Matt blinked. He had a heart once. At least, he vaguely remembered what it felt like to give a damn about the people that he was in this room with. He remembered what it was like to go out with Alex, Jamie, and Nick, having the time of his life with those three blokes. All the parties that they went to, the crazy shenanigans they got into, the fights and drinks they shared in between. All those happy memories he had with those three blokes, his brothers…

Gone. 

Matt couldn’t think of anything. To Matt, they were all strangers to him. Matt the human was now gone. Dead as dirt.  
Matt grabbed Alex by the shoulders. He pushed him out of the way, Alex’s body slamming into a shelf. Josh ran to tackle Matt down but was thrown down on the ground. As Matt’s hand touched the door handle, Nick jumped on top of him. Matt couldn’t see where he was going with Nick’s hands covering his eyes. He spun around and backed himself up into a wall. Nick hit his head hard and let go, falling to the ground. Matt grabbed a metal rod that was on the ground where he pushed Alex, pointing it at Jamie and Miles. Rather than try to fight, Jamie and Miles put their hands up and let Matt get away. 

“You guys,” Josh whined. “How could you?” 

Miles sighed. “Because I’m done.” 

Miles walked away from the group. Confused, they followed after him demanding an explanation. 

“Where are you going?” asked Alex. 

“Getting the fuck out, that’s where.” 

“You’re just going to leave him here, aren’t you?” asked Nick quietly. 

Miles stopped in his tracks just as he was about to open the door. Cursing under his breath, he tried to think of a good excuse.

“What? No I, uh,” Miles hesitated to find the words. 

“Miles, we can’t just let him live like this! Matt needs to be saved!” Josh interjected.

“What if he doesn’t want to be saved? What if Matt wants this life for the better? Face it you guys, there is nothing we can do to try to cure Matt. He’s a lost cause and we have to realize sooner or later!” 

No one said another word. Miles could see how much he was disappointing everyone, especially Josh and Alex. He had tried to keep his sanity afloat during all of this but he was cracking. If Josh hadn’t dragged him along during this mess, Miles would’ve been perfectly content with just continuing doing his work and traveling between the States and London. He could just as easily go back to California and forget about all of this. Sure, that would mean losing his best friend and mentor, and eventually Josh would take another young hopeful hematologist under his wing. Then there was the love and respect Alex had for him, but Miles was fine with throwing that all away. Miles didn’t care. He just…didn’t…

“Fuck..,” Miles muttered, pounding his fist on the door. 

Josh and Alex rushed over to Miles. As much as he wanted to give up, what were the odds that Matt was going to infect someone in the hospital? What were the odds that someone else was going to catch Matt? Perhaps kill him? Miles knew he couldn’t leave the group behind. He was just as important as everyone else was. They all had to start working as one well-oiled machine. 

“I can’t,” Miles murmered. “I can’t leave you guys. I’m just so…” 

“We know,” nodded Josh. “We’re all feeling it too. It’s not been easy for any of us.” 

“But when we put our heads together and work as a team, we do better,” said Alex. 

“We really do,” said Jamie. “It’s not a one person effort and it hasn’t been since this whole mess has started.” 

“And if we lose one person, then we’ll all just start to fall apart,” Nick chimed in. 

Miles turned to everyone and smiled weakly. Josh gave him a reassuring pat on the back. 

“You’re stressed out and you just needed to let it all out. It’s okay,” said Josh. 

Miles threw his arms around Josh. Rather than react uncomfortably like normally, he embraced this hug and kept patting Miles’ back for a minute. Miles took a couple of deep breaths to compose himself. His friends were right. Each person had something to bring. It was almost as if they were their own little zombie survival group, just like on TV. It wouldn’t make any sense for him to just leave, would it? 

Alex was admiring the tender moment that Josh and Miles were having until he turned to see what was going on outside the lab. The smile on his face soon faded and his skin, pale. Jamie tried to get Alex’s attention but he wasn’t paying attention. Jamie looked out to see what Alex was so fixated on and froze. Soon everyone was gathered around the door to see what was out there. No one said a word. They just watched what was going on out there. They looked at each other and nodded at one another. Everyone knew what they had to do. It was time to prepare.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for the support once again! I appreciate any feedback whatsoever and hope you like this chapter!

“So this is what it feels like to prepare for the zombie apocalypse?” Alex asked, watching everyone gather their choice of weapons. 

Holed up in 505 from the impending zombies that were pawing at the door, the gang needed to come up with a strategy plan to kill all of the zombies that were in the hospital. The door was currently barricaded by a shelf but the zombies weren’t doing a whole lot to try to break in. A lot of pounding and pawing on the door but no sort of retaliation on the zombies’ parts. 

“I feel like we need to be smoking cigars to make the atmosphere more lifelike,” Nick suggested. 

“There’s no smoking in a hospital, you nitwit,” said Miles. 

“It’s being overrun by zombies right now. I think smoking in here would be the least of our issues right now.” 

Miles rolled his eyes. It didn’t take long before nearly everyone in the hospital became infected. No one knew how many people Matt actually bit or just killed for food but there was quite a large group outside the door. Upon seeing the horde of zombies making their way to 505, the gang barricaded the door so that no one would come in. Using a shelf to block the door, the zombies kept coming towards the door. Despite them being too dumb to actually try to open the door, the gang was still fearful of what they could do to them. 

Josh had weapons for the gang, better ones. No one wanted to know how or why he had weapons stocked in a cabinet in the lab and perhaps it was best no one asked. Josh told them anyway. 

“After this whole zombie epidemic started, I figured it was best for me to stay stocked and prepared in case anyone of those zombies tried to eat me,” Josh explained, going through the cabinet to find bullets. “Better safe than sorry when the whole hospital decides to become infected.” 

“How do we know for sure the whole hospital is infected?” asked Jamie. “Is it possible for Matt to pass it around so quickly?” 

“Who knows how many people it’s spread to but regardless, we need to eliminate the problem fast,” said Miles, loading his gun with bullets. 

“And Matt?” 

“We’ll have to sedate him,’ said Josh. “I’m still determined that this blood transfusion is going to work and as long as we can keep this motherfucker alive, he’s going to get that clean blood in his system.” 

“You promise you won’t kill ‘im?” asked Alex, worried. 

Josh and Miles nodded. “We promise to protect him. We’re not going to kill him,” said Josh reassuringly. 

“Okay, but one thing,” Nick interrupted. “You’re saying that we, a group of human beings have to protect Matt, a zombie, from all the other people in this hospital, who are also zombies. How the bloody hell are we supposed to protect a zombie from other zombies while we protect ourselves from these zombies? Does anyone else not see how this makes no sense?” 

“It does make sense, you idiot,” said Jamie. “We have to protect Matt because he’s the one who’s going around infecting other people and soon we’re gonna have an even bigger outbreak than before!” 

“But I’m still lost on how we protect him?” 

“That’s easy!” exclaimed Josh, running to the cabinet to grab something. He came back with a giant metal cage, about three feet tall and suited for a Great Dane to live in. 

Everyone’s eyes widened when Josh brought the cage out. Alex was furious at what he saw, blowing up in Josh’s face. 

“Are you fucking mad? Matt is not an animal, he’s a human being! This is so inhumane of you to suggest this!” 

“Alex, it’s not like he’s going to stay in there forever,” said Jamie, trying to see the reasoning behind Josh’s strange idea. “It’s just a trap to lure ‘im in and we’ll bring him back on the gurney, perform the blood transfusion and hopefully, that’ll be the end of it all.” 

Alex rolled his eyes and peered through the window to check on the commotion outside the door. The zombies had left the door. But why, Alex thought to himself. Why would they just stop trying to get through? 

“Do you see anything?” Miles asked. 

Half dazed, Alex shook his head and turned around. “What? Oh, nothing’s out there.” 

“Nothing’s out there? Are you sure?” 

Miles held his gun close behind his back, looking out the window. Alex jumped seeing the gun in Miles’ hand. Pressing his face against the glass, Miles looked from the left to the right. No one was out there. This didn’t reassure Miles in any way, seeing as one zombie could easily spring out from behind and try to break in. Miles stepped away and looked back out there again. He walked away and went back to the group with Alex. 

“Do we have what we need?” asked Josh, stocking up on bullets in his vest. 

“I think so,” said Jamie, tightening up his vest. “Do we really need to wear bullet-proof vests though? I feel like it wouldn’t be necessary if they’re trying to eat us out there.” 

“Any protection will do us some good. Yo, Fred and Daphne! Put these vests on!” 

Josh tossed a bullet-proof vest to Miles and Alex. Miles pulled his white lab coat off and fitted himself for his vest. While Alex put his on, he couldn’t help but notice the way Miles’ vest fit him so nice and snug. Miles wasn’t the most muscular man like Josh was, but he was fit. Alex’s mind wandered off into a darker, dirtier place as he tried to imagine Miles as this sexy zombie slayer, who happened to be really smart and Alex was his partner in crime, among other things…

“Hey, I said do you need help?” 

Alex’s mind went back to reality as he realized that Miles was talking to him. 

“I’m good,” Alex squeaked, fumbling around to get his vest on. 

Confused, Miles nodded and put his lab coat back on. 

“You know, I haven’t heard anything from them in a while. Do you think they’ve scurried away?” asked Nick. 

“I wouldn’t count on that,” replied Miles. “Alex and I checked to see if they’re out there and they’re not. Don’t be fooled though. They could be waiting for the right time to try to attack us. We have to stay alert at all times. Do any of you guys have a plan for how we want to execute this?” 

“Gentlemen, if you’ll allow me!” Josh announced as everyone gathered around him. 

The plan was pretty simple. The main objective was to hunt down Matt, while they kill any zombies that get in their way. Once they find Matt, he would then be lured into the cage, sedated and then brought back to the lab so that the blood transfusion can take place. 

“Does anyone have any questions before we trek out there?” Josh asked after explaining the plan. 

“Yeah, I’ve got a complaint,” said Alex, frustrated. “Is the cage really necessary to lure 'im into? I don’t think we should be putting 'im in a cage once we catch 'im. He’s not a fucking animal for Chrissake!” 

“Yeah, suddenly now I’m not sure about this either. Shouldn’t we just carry him to the lab ourselves once we sedate 'im?” Jamie suggested. 

“Okay, then, let’s take a poll,” Josh sighed. “How many of you think that we should ditch the cage and just carry Matt over to the lab ourselves?” 

Everyone raised their hands. Josh looked around to see that he was outnumbered. There was no use arguing with them when the majority ruled. He threw his hands up and retrieved the cage, tossing it aside. 

“Okay, so no cage,” said Josh. “I’ve got the serum to sedate him and everything. Does anyone have an issue with that?” 

“Yeah, one thing,” said Nick. “If we’re supposed to sedate 'im, are we gonna like shoot 'im with a tranquilizer gun for that or is that something completely different?” 

“What? No. No, we’re not shooting him with a tranquilizer gun. That’s dumb. We’ll just tackle him to the ground and I’ll stab him in the neck with this needle.” 

“We? Who’s we?” asked Jamie. 

“I dunno! One of you guys has to help me out when we catch the bastard!” 

Miles smacked his forehead. Some days he couldn’t believe the things that came out of Josh’s mouth, especially when he was the older one. Nonetheless, Miles put up with it. 

“Now are we ready?” Josh asked. 

“Yes!” everyone said in unison. 

“Bout fucking time too…” 

The fifth floor was silent. The gang searched high and low on the floor to find someone but there was no one to be found. The lights were dim, the air cold. Beneath the tough exterior the gang was putting on for one another, each one of them was scared. They had dealt with one zombie but now there were more to fight off before getting to Matt. They knew dealing with Matt was bad enough but these were strange zombies that really didn’t know better. These zombies would not hesitate to break themselves off a piece of the gang and that was truly terrifying. Stepping outside of 505, they all knew of the risk they were in. 

“Shall we take the stairs?” Miles whispered. 

They looked around at each other and shrugged. There wasn’t a reason they had to be quiet if no one else was around. There was no sign of any zombies on this floor. While the news could be comforting to most, the gang still had a reason to be fearful. Perhaps they could double check to see if there was a zombie hiding or they could look elsewhere. Looking elsewhere seemed to be a better option. 

“Sure,” nodded Alex. “We might as well go to the fourth floor.” 

At the end of the hallway, Miles pushed the door open and lead the group down the stairs. The other four followed close behind. When they reached the fourth floor, Miles was hesitant to open the door. He looked out the window of the door and saw no one out there. Slowly, he opened the door and continued to lead the way. 

The fourth floor was not much different from the fifth. Same eerie presence and silence. The gang looked around for any zombies and so far there were none. 

“Guys, are you sure they didn’t go up instead of down?” asked Jamie. “I’m not seeing them around.” 

“Maybe they aren’t even in the building,” Nick suggested. “Maybe they’ve escaped and are terrorizing the city.” 

“Nonsense!” Josh laughed. “Zombies wouldn’t come out in the broad daylight to go after people. I mean, have you seen how stupid those fu-“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do realize this ends on a "cliffhanger" and I did mean to do this on purpose! Wait and see what happens next!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any feedback or anything is always appreciated! Thanks for the support!! :) xx

Josh hated it when people used the term “heart skips a beat.” He had always believed that it made no sense when people who get scared, their heart skipped a beat. Instead, he preferred the term “Fight or Flight” when it came to scare tactics on the heart. This was a reaction that the heart had when a person was shocked or surprised by a certain event. What he learned was that when a person is scared by something, there are two things they can do about it – attack it to scare it off (“fight”), or you can run away from it (“flight”). The body reacts by releasing adrenaline into the system, which increases the breathing rate, heart rate and causes pupils to dilate, among other things. This means that they are better prepared to deal with the thing making them which will make it easier for them to get away if need be.

When Josh saw that zombie lunge forward at him, he felt his heart beat rapidly in the milliseconds that passed between the moments he and the zombie locked eyes to when the zombie was up in the air to tackle Josh down. He knew he had a choice to make, fight or flight. Did he dare try to smack down the flying zombie that could easily grab a hold of him or was he going to run off and have a zombie chase after him? Josh closed his eyes and pulled down on the trigger. With the sound of the gun firing off rang in his ears, he opened his eyes to see the inside of the zombie’s stomach explode all over him, covering him in blood and guts. The zombie laid motionless, with one hand on Josh’s shoe. Kicking it aside, he squashed it down like a bug and blew the smoke coming from his gun. 

“Whoa.” 

Josh looked around to see if any more zombies would come flying out but there were none. He motioned for the group to follow his lead as they looked around for more. Searching high and low, they found none on the fourth floor. They proceeded to the stairs, leading them down to the third floor. 

“Now, before we go down, does everyone have their weapons locked and loaded?” Josh asked. 

The gang fumbled with their guns and bats to make sure they were ready to attack in case the same happened to them. They all nodded in unison when they were ready. 

“Alright…let’s move.” 

When Josh pushed the door open, the gang was surprised to see how the third floor looked. The brightness of the floor was a stark contrast to the darkness of the last two floors they had just explored. They looked around and noticed the blood that was smeared on the walls. While it wasn’t everywhere, it still gave the gang an unsettling feeling about what they could be up against. Miles stuck out a finger and touched the blood. 

“It’s nearly dry,” said Miles, rubbing it between his fingers. “Come on! Let’s explore more.” 

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnn.” 

The five of them huddled together and looked everywhere for the source of that sound. It wasn’t too far from them but it also wasn’t close. No one else was in the hall that they could see. Miles immediately grabbed Alex’s arm for safety while clutching his bat in the other hand. 

“Who was that?” Jamie whispered. 

“I dunno but it definitely didn’t sound like Matt,” Nick whispered. 

“How do you know what Matt sounds like?” 

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnn!” 

The noise was louder that time. Nick hugged Jamie, trembling with fear. Jamie didn’t try to push him off, seeing that he was just as afraid. 

“Jamie, I’m scared!” 

“Relax Nick! There’s nothing to be-“ 

“UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNN!!!!” 

The five of them all screamed when they turned and saw that the zombie was right behind them, limping their way to Miles. Her nurse’s uniform was covered in splattered blood, her eyes foggy and glazed over. Her face looked translucent and the gaping wound in her neck was hard to look at, seeing the muscle and tissue just barely keeping her head together. As her hand reached out to touch Miles, her head went flying off her body when he swung his bat. Ripping off her neck, the head fired down the hallway and landed in the garbage can down at the end. 

The body collapsed on the floor. Miles cocked his gun and shot the headless zombie in the heart. Blood splashed all over his face but he didn’t seem to care. After all, blood is a huge role in his job description. 

The others looked over to see the zombies emerge from the hospital rooms that they were hiding in. They limped and crawled their way toward the gang. Without thinking, Nick stepped away from the group and approached the horde of zombies. The zombies moved faster when they saw Nick approach him. Meanwhile, he waited for them to come a little closer as he loaded his gun. He kept a steady aim and waited for the right moment to shoot. Shooting them too soon would give them a chance to retaliate but if it was too late, he was lunch. 

“Nick! Fucking shoot!” Alex shouted. 

Nick waited for them to get exactly where he wanted them. Right now they were all clustered up in a big group. They crammed together and walked much faster now. With the gun cocked, Nick kept his finger still and steady on the trigger. Wait for it, he told himself. The perfect target was coming up in three…two…one…

Nick nearly fell backwards after firing off the first shot. He didn’t see how the bullet was not only able to pierce through one zombie but three of them in a row. The others watched the bullet go through in amazement. They had thought a stunt like this was only reserved for the movies. Nick carefully loaded his gun and took aim at his next target. He was able to repeat his success. The third time it didn’t happen, rather only killing one zombie. Meanwhile group was getting bigger and Nick couldn’t shoot at them alone. The gang spread out, chasing after the zombies. 

Nick and Josh were the only ones who actually had any aim when it came to killing the zombies. Meanwhile, Jamie and Miles were running around screaming and waving their bats. The insanity that filled the hallway greatly confused the zombies who were fixated on Jamie and Miles. It actually proved to be helpful seeing as it was a perfect distraction for them before they met their demise. Throughout the mess, Alex scrambled around trying to find Matt. He figured he had to be near and he had to be the one to protect him from all the chaos that was going on. He ducked down and rolled himself into an open room. 

The room looked no different from what the scene in the halls looked like. He scanned the room and checked everywhere to see where Matt could be. After no luck, he tried the room next door. Alex searched the room high and low until he heard a muffled noise coming from the bathroom. At first, he was startled. Gun in hand, he walked over to the bathroom door slowly and opened the door in such a manner. 

Matt was sleeping soundly in the bathtub. His arms and legs were sprawled out all over and had drool coming from the corner of his mouth. Alex looked on at him caringly and carefully walked up to him. Trying to be careful, Alex tapped on his shoulder to wake him up. When he didn’t wake, Alex shook him a little. Matt stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes. He looked around the room at where he was and looked up at Alex. Alex smiled and waved. 

“Hey mate, it’s me.” 

Matt blinked, unsure of who this man was or what he was doing here. He wasn’t hungry, which wasn’t odd, seeing as he had plenty to eat before, so seeing Alex, this healthy human, had no effect on his appetite. But then again, why was he here in the first place, Matt thought to himself. 

“Matt, it’s Alex! You remember me, right?” 

He thought he remembered him. The face was very familiar, Matt thought. Did he try to eat him at one point? Probably happened but he couldn’t recall. 

“Look Matt, I know what happened earlier…I know it’s not you. None of this is you. When you attacked us and tried to eat us-“ 

Oh shite, I did try to eat him, Matt thought. 

“I know it was your way of trying to survive. I understand. Well, actually I don’t understand. I haven’t the faintest clue as to what you’re going through. But that’s why your friends are here. In this hospital.” 

Alex pointed his arm out the bathroom door, indicating what was taking place out in the halls. Matt craned his neck out from the tub and managed to sit up in the tub. He looked down at his hands, picking at the scabs that had formed on his palms. He felt weird about his current state of mind, conflicted to say the least. Here he was, finding the food he so desperately needed to eat and now that he had it, he felt like shit. The human part of himself was trying to seep back into his psyche but he was still very much controlled by the zombie mindset. 

“Matt…” 

Alex reached his hand out. Matt sniffed at it and looked up. 

“Matt, we’re going to help you. Just take my hand and nothing bad is going to happen.” 

Matt looked Alex up and down. He was starting to remember things. Alex was always kind, he thought. The others were crazy but they were people Alex trusted. He stopped himself at first when he reached for Alex. He remembered how badly the others treated him when he was hungry. He was afraid they were going to do that to him if he came along with Alex. But if he didn’t come along, he’d have to stay holed up in that bathroom just waiting. Waiting for…something. 

Matt took Alex’s hand and got up from the bathtub. He stepped out of it and stared at Alex. Why was he smiling at me, Matt thought. Alex didn’t say anything. He just lead the way out of the room and back into the hallway. Alex didn’t notice that were no more zombies for everyone to fight. They had must’ve been all taken out, Alex wondered. Alex and Matt accidentally stepped on a zombie’s leg, hearing the bones crunch underneath their feet. Alex looked under and gagged while Matt said nothing. 

“Ugh, that’s sick,” Jamie exclaimed, disgusted. “I can’t believe you actually stepped on ‘im too!” 

“Hey, you brought him out!” Nick noted excitedly, pointing to Matt. “How were you able to do it?” 

Alex shrugged, still holding Matt’s hand. “I dunno. I just talked to ‘im and somehow he listened to me.” 

Miles looked on curiously. “Well, that should be the load of ‘em. We better head back upstairs and get that transfusion in ASAP!” 

The gang hurried up the stairs with Matt tagging along right behind them. Matt held onto Alex’s hand the whole time, not feeling the temptation to bite him or anything. Somewhere deep in his mind, Matt was starting to remember that he could trust Alex. Jamie and Nick, perhaps, but the other two weren’t jogging much of a memory for him. However, he figured if they were good with his friends, then maybe he could give them a chance to help him. 

Back in room 505, Miles and Josh were getting everything ready for the transfusion while Jamie, Nick, and Alex prepped Matt for what was going to happen as he laid down on the gurney. 

“Everything is going to be okay, Matt,” said Alex, holding onto Matt’s hand. “Miles and Josh are here to take care of you and make you better.” 

“They’re going to give you some healthy blood,” said Nick. “They’re hoping it’ll be the cure to your zombie-ness. If not, then we’re screwed.” 

“Nick!” Jamie and Alex cried. 

“I’m sorry. What I meant to say was, if this doesn’t work then we’re really really screwed.” 

“That doesn’t help either!” Jamie gritted his teeth. 

“The point is, we want it to work really bad,” said Alex, trying to keep things positive. “We miss you, Matt. We miss our best friend.” 

Matt looked around at them and smiled, his lips chapped and cut. His black eyes no longer seemed so dark with just a faint of color in the irises. His face was still peeling and grey but when his friends saw him smile for the first time since he’d been bitten, he didn’t look so bad. 

“Is he ready?” Josh asked, blood in hand. 

Jamie looked over at Nick and Alex and gave him a nod. “We’re ready.” 

Miles brought out an IV line over to the side of the gurney and wiped Matt’s arm down to sterilize the area. Matt flinched when Miles wiped his arm but didn’t make a sound. He turned to his friends, frightened. 

“You’re okay buddy,” said Nick reassuringly. 

Matt nodded his head and looked straight up at the light. He closed his eyes and tried to think about his human life. 

“We’re here for you,” said Jamie. 

Matt felt a needle go into his vein. He turned to see that Miles was still sitting over him with Josh behind. He remained calm, remembering what Alex had told him. 

“He’s doing good so far,” said Miles, giving everyone a thumbs up. 

“How long do you suppose this will take?” Alex asked. 

“Four hours at the most,” Josh replied. “He’s receiving a lot of blood. I pray this won’t go to waste.” 

Something was jogging in Matt’s head. An old memory or at least, he thought it was his. It was Halloween night. He and his friends were dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. It was coming back to him so vividly. Alex was dressed as the Scarecrow, Nick was the Cowardly Lion, Jamie was Dorothy, and he was the Tin Man. 

“He’s still breathing. I think it’s gonna work!” Miles cheered. 

Bits of that Halloween were coming back to him as the new blood began to flow through his veins. He remembered that everyone had to draw straws as to who was going to be Dorothy. When Jamie showed up at Matt’s, it was the funniest thing he, Nick, and Alex had seen. Not only did he wear red sparkly heels with his costume but he also borrowed his neighbor’s dog to play Toto. I’m the best damn Dorothy and you know it, Matt remembered Jamie saying. 

“How much blood is there to go?” Miles asked Josh. 

“It’s not even halfway there. He’s got a long ways to go. Thank god he’s cooperating with us,” said Josh. 

Alex, Jamie, Matt, and Nick went on a Halloween bar crawl that, with Toto along for the ride. They lasted four bars before they were thrown out on account of Nick and Matt   
getting into a fight with a couple of brutes. Outside that bar, the four of them noticed that Toto was nowhere to be seen. Everyone was in a panic, especially Jamie. 

“Uuuuuhhhhh…I…” 

Matt tried to say something but his eyes were getting heavy. He didn’t know how much longer he was going to keep his eyes open. He just kept staring up at the bright light that was shining down on his face. 

They searched everywhere for Toto that night. Matt remembered Jamie crying that night, muttering that his neighbor was going to be pissed, over and over. Nick was driving the car all over Sheffield in the wee hours looking for a small dog, everyone calling out for Toto. 

“Toto?” 

Miles and Josh looked at each other and then back at Matt. Jamie, Nick, and Alex leaned in around Matt. No one understood what Matt meant by “Toto.” Everyone waited for him to say something else. 

Matt’s memory took him to a dark street they drove past that night. They were about ready to give up on their search until they heard a yip. Toto’s down there, he remembered Jamie crying out. Nick parked the car on the side of the road. Jamie ran out in the middle of the street and called out for Toto. Toto sat still, not immediately recognizing his name being called but saw that Dorothy was calling for him. He scampered over to Jamie but then stopped. Toto saw a much bigger dog come out of the dark shadows of the alley and growled. This dog did not look friendly and frightened Toto. He ran off in the other direction and the dog chased after. 

“Toto!” 

Matt gasped for air. The blood rushed through his system and made him feel dizzy. He thought he heard someone say something to him but he couldn’t hear them. Everything was foggy now and time was beginning to feel like an illusion. 

The four of them ran after the dogs. Matt didn’t know how Jamie was able to run in those high heels but somehow he managed. They ran for about two blocks before they all heard a dog yelp. Jamie ran faster and saw that the bigger dog had Toto backed up into a wall. Toto was whimpering and looked hurt. Jamie called out for the bigger dog, hoping it would divert his attention from Toto. When the bigger dog came after Jamie, he hit it with his basket as self-defense. The bigger dog ran off and Jamie came to Toto’s aid. He held him close to his chest and kept petting him, promising that he would save him, they all would save him. 

The drive to the vet was a haze but to Matt, it was clear as day. Nick drove as fast as he could to the nearest vet. Matt was in the back seat with Jamie, comforting him as best as he could. Alex was on the lookout for vets all over Sheffield. When they finally found one, Toto was given immediate care. Jamie was hysterical in the waiting room. He told Alex to call his neighbor and let him know the situation since he wasn’t in the right mindset to talk. Matt and Nick sat with him in the waiting room and gave him reassuring words. It was a long wait, Matt remembered, but then the doctor came out. He asked everyone to come into the room with him and see Toto. They all went in and suddenly, everything was bright…

“Matt! Matt!” 

Matt was wide awake. He could hear Nick shouting in his ear, shaking him. Matt shook his head and propped himself up on the gurney. He looked around the room. Where did he go? What was he doing here? He looked around and saw his friends, Miles, and Josh all staring at him intently, waiting for him to say something. 

“Matt?” Alex asked hesitantly. “Are you…?” 

He looked down at his hands. They were starting to turn back to color. His arms didn’t look so bad anymore. The he looked down at his feet. Toes were missing unfortunately but perhaps something could be done about that, he figured. He touched his face and felt how smooth it was in most places. Matt looked back at his friends. They were half smiling at him, cautious of how successful the transfusion went. He took a deep breath. 

“Jamie,” Matt spoke. “Is Toto still alive?” 

Nick and Alex gasped. Miles and Josh covered their mouths. 

“Who?” asked Jamie. 

“Toto. The dog. Remember that Halloween we took the neighbor’s dog and he almost got killed by that big dog? Did he make it okay?” 

Jamie put his head down, trying to hold back any tears. He looked back at Matt and smiled. 

“Yes Matt. Toto’s still alive. Just like you are.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The last chapter of Dead-ish. I didn't think this day would come but here it is. I hope you all enjoy this. Please feel free to leave any feedback as I greatly appreciate it! Thank you so much!! :) xx

“How are you feeling?” Josh asked. 

“I’m alright I guess,” replied Matt. 

It had been three weeks since the blood transfusion, along with all the other crazy zombie happenings that had occurred and now Matt, Alex, Nick, and Jamie were back at St. George’s in room 505 for a check-up with Josh and Miles. 

“No cravings of brains or any sort of human flesh?” asked Miles. 

“None that I can recall.” 

With the success of Matt’s blood transfusion, Josh and Miles documented their studies and published it on their website, which prompted other scientists in England to do their own tests on zombies that had plagued the area. It had appeared to be conclusive that those who did the blood transfusions were found with great success of their own. 

While the zombie problem appeared to die down, the issue at hand was still with the meat supply in England. Scientists had wanted to do research on how the blood transfusions would work on animals but so far, there had been no such luck. However, there was great interest in developing substitute meat in the meantime. 

“And those who have been given a blood transfusion since then have met with the same results,” said Josh. “Guys, I think we can officially say that we’ve beat the zombie apocalypse!” Josh high-fived everyone, smiling broadly and feeling proud of his success.

“It’s not over yet,” said Miles. “There’s still needs to be careful monitoring of those who have been treated. Much like any regular blood transfusion, anything could go awry. Plus, the meat supply is still dwindling.” 

“Yeah, I meant to ask about that,” said Nick. “How come no one’s thought to just eat rabbits and such? I mean, it’s an animal that didn’t get affected by the zombies or anything! I’m sure Matt can speak for ‘imself on this, right mate?” 

Matt shook his head. “Actually no. The only reason why I ate rabbits and shit was because they tasted the same as eating a human brain or human flesh. It was gross. Imitation human flesh would be the best way to describe it. I mean, the only reason why I didn’t eat any of you guys in the first place was because I was sure I could find something similar to it and I did. But then by the time I was able to find some human flesh, my hunger was just completely satisfied. After that, I didn’t want anymore. You don’t choose to eat human flesh when you’re a zombie. It’s just the one thing that will give that sorta instant gratification and by the time you’re done, you feel sick.” 

Everyone was stunned at how well put and thought out Matt was able to describe being a zombie. On the ride home that night after the blood transfusion, Matt didn’t want to talk about the events that preceded. He told them it was a bit jarring for him to rehash what he went through. In the visits with Josh and Miles that came after, he barely talked about his time as a zombie with them. It was only status updates and talk about his health. Matt never felt comfortable with discussing his short-lived time as a zombie until now. 

“Matt, this is a huge breakthrough for you,” said Josh. “Anything else you want to add? How are you doing without your foot?” 

“Eh, it’s not so bad. I still wish I had it though.” 

After the transfusion, Josh and Miles decided that it was best to amputate the foot that had been bitten. Unfortunately, the only person that could do it turned into a zombie so while Nick had to kill the zombie, Josh and Miles took it upon themselves to amputate it themselves with a chainsaw. Fortunately, after this gruesome practice was done, Matt was taken to another doctor where the wound was treated with greater care and he was given a prosthetic foot. 

“You had to be the one to chainsaw his foot off, didn’t you?” Miles asked, condescendingly. 

“What? Did you think that just leaving that foot on him was the best idea?” Josh asked. “And besides, I’ve seen it done before so it couldn’t have been that hard.” 

Miles rolled his eyes. 

“You know, we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done,” said Jamie. “We really owe you guys one.” 

“Really, it’s what we do best,” Josh smiled, putting an arm around Miles. 

“You saved our best friend,” said Alex. “For that, we are truly indebted to you.” 

“You all saved me,” said Matt, bringing everyone in for a group hug. “Through the power of friendship, I’m so grateful to be standing here today.” 

“Please, you’re gonna make me cry!” exclaimed Nick. 

Everyone laughed, huddling in closer together and hugging one another. It was an interesting bond, indeed, but a bond that was able to withhold all the madness and chaos that went along in saving a friend from zombies. If these six could do that, they couldn’t begin to imagine the crazy adventures they would go on after this. 

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

Glass smashed through the door. Outside, a zombie was hanging half of her body through the broken window of the door, trying to crawl her way into the room. The hugging had stopped and soon everyone was scrambling around to find something to ward this zombie away from them. Nick stood there, pulling something out from his back pocket. 

“ERRRGGHHHH!!! ERRGGGHHH!!! ERRGGGHHH!!!!” 

The zombie struggled to get out of the window, her decaying arms flailing around and her mouth drooling. Nick kept his aim steady and fired. Her head was blown up, chunks flying everywhere in the room, with some getting on Nick’s face. The other’s crowded around him and took a look at what was left of the zombie. Her body was moving ever so slightly so Nick fired another shot, more of her guts splattered all over the room and getting on the gang. The others turned to Nick as he blew the smoke that came out of his gun. 

“What?” Nick shrugged. “I’m not about to have to go through THAT again!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this! I'm sure I'll come up with another piece about these guys in the near future but thank you to those who took the time to read this! You are all wonderful!! :) xx


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